1. Sustainability in Non Domestic Construction By Professor Christopher Gorse – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

2. Sustainability in Non Domestic Construction Professor Christopher Gorse

3. Buildings are responsible for 50% of the energy currently used in the UK. With the increased emphasis on reducing carbon emissions and energy demands, buildings must become more efficient. Approximate estimates on energy use

4. Currently we are not particularly good at designing and constructing low carbon buildings Discrepancy in Measured v’s Predicted Mean U’values for New Build UK Dwelling (Wingfield et al. 2011)

5. Discrepancy in Performance The following graph shows the expected designed heat loss of buildings compared with the actual heat loss. Some of the buildings in this study lose almost twice as much heat energy that they were designed to lose.

6. Wingfield, J., Miles-Shenton, D. and Bell, M. (2011) Comparison of Measured versus Predicted Heat Loss for New Build UK Dwellings – Unpublished Data, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK Comparison of measured versus predicted heat loss for New Build UK Dwelling (Wingfield et al. 2011)

7. Sustainable? Zero Carbon Government targets! Domestic buildings should be zero carbon by 2016 Non-domestic buildings should be zero carbon by 2019 New buildings only account for 1%?

8. Zero Carbon Commercial and Industrial buildings are expected to be Zero carbon by 2019. The results on the previous graph which offers the most comprehensive data on small dwellings does not look positive. If we are so far away from the target with domestic buildings can we expect to achieve zero carbon commercial buildings?

9. Consider the Impact on the Environment if we don’t change

10. Global warming models Look at the met office site and the models of global warming http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/models/modeldata.html

11. The increases in Carbon concentrations are greater than the human race has ever seen and are rising. www.metoffice.gov.uk

12. Are the measures being used to improve commercial buildings sufficient?

13. Building Research Establishment (BRE 2002) published a guide to assist developers when identifying sustainability issues. Issues include: Land Use, Urban Form and Design Transport Energy Impact of individual buildings Natural resources Ecology Community Business Look up the sustainability checklist for developments published by the BRE. What issues does it cover?

14. What is BREEAM?

15. BREEAM Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Model BREEAM provides a numerical weighting system that is applied to new and existing buildings to assess their ‘sustainability’. www.breeam.org

16. BREEAM Categories and weightings Management 15% Health and Welfare15% Energy13.6% Transport11.4% Water5% Materials10% Land use15% Pollution15%

17. Trained assessors score category The BREEAM assessor awards a numerical score to each category and the scores are totalled to give an overall rating. The designated BREEAM ratings of pass, good, very good or excellent can be awarded.

18. Minimum score required to achieve BREEAM rating Pass 25 Good40 Very Good55 Excellent 70

19. What are the costs of a BREEAM Excellent building?

20. Capital cost of sustainable construction – one model ‘ The Price of Sustainable Schools’ – BRE (2008) – The following is for a Secondary School :

21. Low Carbon – Zero Carbon Buildings What are the practical solutions to improve the energy performance of a building?

22. Improved thermal performance Preventing cold bridges Insulating Using thermal mass

23. Improved Airtightness Air leakage reduces thermal effectiveness

24. Air gaps cause real problems. If air is allowed to move around insulation thermal bypass occurs – cavities should be sealed and air-barriers maintained.

25. Harnessing Solar Power

26. Solar Photovoltaics can be used to harness the sun’s energy. Energy is collected during daylight hours and can be used of fed directly to the national grid. Buildings that use electricity during the day, such as offices and schools have the greatest potential to make direct use of the electricity generated during the day.

27. To capture energy from the sun, solar panels should face south in the UK and be orientated at an optimum angle (30-40 degrees). The panels should be unobstructed by trees, building or other tall objects that may reduce the efficiency.

28. Solar thermal panel – solar collectors capture the suns heat energy. They are used to assist with the heating of the building.

29. Wind power

30. Natural ventilation reduces the demand on air conditioning systems

31. www.heatpumps.co.uk/thebasics.htm Ground air heat pumps can supply additional heating and cooling to a building

32. Brainstorming topic Identify other methods of improving the energy efficiency of buildings