Context – Web Based Sources

 

Improving Embodied Energy of Old buildings

 

1. The Carbon Trust - Building a brighter future PDF- Principles of good design (BP)

www.carbontrust.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A89DB6C2-9AE7-4450-BC24-9999F5A79284/0/Building_a_Brighter_Future.pdf

Producing the Specification: Materials in the construction industry (Stats), 2.02 Cost of Environmentally sensitive building: Benefits of green building (BP & Pie Chart on comparative construction cost), Key Benefits and risks of traditional procurement, Key benefits and risks of appointing a Design and Build Contractor, Key Benefits and Risks of the government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI), 3.06 Designing for daylight and Natural ventilation, efficiency of partially loaded boilers (graph), 3.08 Learn the heating performance of your building (graph).

 

2. BRE/Energy Saving Trust Good Practice Guide 155: Energy Efficient Refurbishment of existing housing.

http://www.feta.co.uk/downloads/GPG155.pdf

Package of energy efficient measures to achieve best practice (Page 4 of 36, BP & Table) Annual Running Costs and SAP Ratings (Page 5 of 36 Bar Graphs), Insulation Values (Page 8 of 36, Insulation Values), Cavity Wall Insulation (Page 9), Internal Wall Insulation of Solid walls (Page 10), External Wall Insulation (Page 11), New external Walls (Page 12), pitched roofs and ventilated lofts (Page 13), Flat Roofs (Page 14), Windows (Page 15), Doors (Page 16), Ground Floors (Page 16-17), Thermal Bridging (Page 18), Examples of draughtstripping (Page 20), Alternative Arrangements for draught lobbies (Page 21), Types of Draughtstrips (Page 22-23), Passive Track Ventilation Systems & Whole-House Mechanical Ventilation System with heat recovery, Space heating and hot water (Page 26), CHeSS HR4 and HC4 for Gas systems & SEDBUK efficiency (Page 27)

 

3. Energy Saving Trust CE 184

http://www.est.org.uk/uploads/documents/housingbuildings/CE184%20-%20practical%20refurbishment%20of%20solid-walled%20houses.pdf

-Improving Energy saving performance for ground floors, walls, windows, doors, roofs, and draughtstripping.

 

4. Natural Building Technologies Ltd

http://www.natural-building.co.uk/pdfs/Chearsley_Case_Study.pdf

– Case Study Barn Conversion and rebuild. Performance and Environmental Issues.

 

5. Natural Building Technologies Ltd – Energy efficiency in vernacular building renovation

http://www.natural-building.co.uk/pdfs/article_energy_efficiency.pdf

-Sustaining heritage: insulation in old buildings.

 

 

6 Natural Building Technologies Ltd

http://www.natural-building.co.uk/pdfs/Oakley_Case_Study.pdf

– Case Study Internal wall insulation. Performance and Environmental Issues.

 

7 Patricia Ferguson, Minister for culture tourism and sport. HEACS Conference 14 Sept 2006. Response to HEACS and HS SHEP.

http://www.heacs.org.uk/documents/2006/pferguson06.pdf

-Sustainability, embodied energy saving heritage buildings, argues against conversion/reuse.

 

8 Athena Institute, Canada. – Renovating Vs. Building New: The Environmental Merits – Wayne B. Trusty

http://www.athenasmi.ca/publications/docs/OECD_paper.pdf

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Impact Estimator (EIE) for assessing projects that involve major renovations to existing buildings, used to gauge the environmental gains of Sustainable Use of Building Stock (SUBS) when a building requires major renovation or rehabilitation, in place of continued use does not require significant construction to prolonged use. Supported with case studies.

 

9. Appropriate Technology for Living Association (ALTA)

http://www.converge.org.nz/atla/new-11-98-p3.html

-Assessing environmental impact of a building through considering how much energy it took to build it.

-Table; Embodied Energy for New Zealand materials.

 

10. The Guardian – David Adam

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,1998150,00.html

-Problems with estimating life cycle analysis and embodied energy.

 

11. Preservation Seattle – Historic Preservation and Sustainability – Christine Palmer

http://historicseattle.org/preservationseattle/preservationenv/defaultSEPT06.htm

-Problems with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification evaluation tool for buildings.

-Nexus between sustainability and preservation.

-Incorporating historic integrity into sustainability assessment systems that will encompass both quantitative and qualitative measures.

-Case study, solutions.

 

12. International Existing Building Code

http://www.iccsafe.org/

- Source for building safety products and services, and the International Code.

 

13.  The Greenhouse Trust – Norwich’s Environment Centre

http://www.greenhousetrust.co.uk/index.htm?env_info/_index_insulation.htm

- Case study: insulation using natural and low energy materials.

 

14. Recovery Insulation

http://www.recovery-insulation.co.uk/energy.html

-Basic Q & A, and facts on embodied energy of buildings.

 

15.  Greenhouse – Australian Guide to Environmentally Sustainable homes

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/technical/fs31.htm

-Assessing embodied energy.

-Embodied energy of common materials.

-Guidelines for reducing embodied energy in buildings.

 

16. Heritage Lottery Fund

http://www.hlf.org.uk/future/factsandfigures.html

-Heritage facts and figures: 4 facts on Sustainable development – resource use.

 

17.  Inventory of Embodied Energy

http://people.bath.ac.uk/cj219/

-Embodied energy and carbon associated with building materials.

 

18.  Historic Buildings and Energy Efficiency - A guide to Part F of the Northern Ireland Building Regulations 2006

http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/historic_buildings_energy_efficiency_a_guide_to_partf.pdf

-Source of information for anyone considering works to improve the energy efficiency of historic buildings.

-Principles of repair and alterations to historic buildings.

-Risks from Intervention in historic buildings.

 

19.Sustainability and the historic environment – May Cassar

 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableheritage/historic_environment.pdf

-Case study

-Conservation management planning.

 

20. BRE – Constructing the Future Issue 29 Summer 2006

http://www.bre.co.uk/pdf/ctf/CTF_29.pdf

-Transforming Victorian Buildings into Modern, energy efficient homes.

-Victorian House of the Future Project launch, to avoid demolishing millions of Victorian terraced homes, to meet 2050 energy saving targets.

-Case study, Victorian stable block on BRE property.

 

21. Victorian Government Submission to the productivity commission inquiry into the conservation of historic places.

www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/heritage/subs/sub184.pdf

-Report that recognizes the environmental benefits of conservation for embodied energy of existing buildings in Victoria, Australia.

 

 

22. British Research Establishment (BRE), ‘Measurement of Residual Embodied Energy in Heritage Housing’,

2003, quoted in ‘The Economic Value of the Historic Environment’ in Heritage Counts, 2003.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/heritagecounts

 

23. Selwyn Tucker, Embodied Energy, CSIRO CMIT Brochures-Technologies Embodied Energy.

http://www.cmit.csiro.au/brochures/tech/embodied

-Facts about embodied energy in buildings.

 

24. Taking into account the embodied energy in existing building stock, it has been found

by Dr. Selwyn Tucker (cited above) and Dan Lake (1997,

http://ecodesign.arch.wustl.edu/546a/STRATEGIES/BUILDINGS/EMBODIED%20

ENERGY/Audubon.html ) that total energy use (embodied energy + operating

energy) is typically comparable only after 30 years. That is - it takes about 30 years

before energy savings will be realised by building new rather than renovating an older

commercial or other large building.

 

25. Memorandum by English Heritage

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmodpm/703/703we58.htm

-Opportunities for Housing Development: “Re-using historic buildings is good for the natural as well as the historic environment. The historic environment represents embodied energy in the form of timber, stone, bricks and glass. Research by the Building Research Establishment has shown that a "typical" Victorian house contains energy equivalent to 15,000 litres of petrol, which is enough to drive a car five times round the Earth.”

 

26. The Civic Trust

www.civictrust.org.uk/policy%20and%20campaigns/positions/vat.shtml

-Reducing the rate of VAT on building work covering the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing and historic buildings so that maintenance and regeneration of our built environment can be taxed in a manner closer to that of new-build.

-See also http://www.helm.org.uk/server/show/nav.7754 for similar.

 

27. Environmental Change Institute: Oxford University

Reducing the environmental impact of housing: Embodied energy

http://www.rcep.org.uk/urban/report/eci-appe_embodied_energy.pdf

-detail on the issues underlying the energy balance between refurbishment and housing renewal, taking into account both embodied energy and energy over the lifetime of the dwelling.

 

 

 

 

28.  Dennis Rodwell - Balancing energy conservation and building conservation

http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/77/balacing/rodwell.htm

-Changes to Part L of the Building Regulations 2000, focusing on energy conservation, will have a significant impact on the historic environment. Predicated by the Kyoto Agreement.

 

29. The Economic Dimension: State of the Historic Environment Report

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/heritagecounts_old/pdfs/historicenvironment_02.pdf

-The historic environment as a cornerstone in sustainable development.

 

30. Mumma, Tracy. Reducing the Embodied Energy of Buildings. Centre for Resourceful Building Technology, Missoula, MT 1995: http://hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/95/950109.html

 

 

The Green Ration Book: Carbon Dioxide from Construction

 

31. Source1: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/sei/ecofootprint/york%20technical%20report.PDF8
but their source is from
"Managing the Flow of Construction Minerals in the North West Region of England: A Mass Balance Approach"
Darryn McEvoy, Joe Ravetz, John Handley Journal of Industrial Ecology, Summer 2004, Vol. 8, No. 3, Pages 121-140
(doi: 10.1162/1088198042442289) which is available to subscribers
See

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/10881980424422898

 

32.

Source2: http://www.homeenergy.org/archive/hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/95/950109.html8

"Estimates by Ray Cole of the
University of British Columbia's School of Architecture also compare embodied energy with operating energy. Cole's figures relate to a 3,750 ft2 ranch-style home, constructed in either conventional or energy-efficient style.1 The energy-efficient version of this house includes R-42 ceilings, 226 walls, additional glazing on the south elevation, and added thermal mass. As in the other Canadian study, Cole's figures reveal an embodied energy for both versions of the house that is equal to several years' worth of heating energy, which is the major component of home operating energy in Canada (see Table 1). According to Cole's data, it follows that the more operating-energy efficient the house is, the larger percentage embodied energy will be of the structure's total energy.

"Another study, conducted by Andrew Buchanan and Brian Honey of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand (which has a similar range of climates to California) concluded that the energy required to manufacture a house is of a similar order of magnitude to the energy required to heat the house over a 25-year life (see Table 2). That study drew upon research conducted at
New Zealand's Energy Research and Development Committee in 1983, which among other things estimated "energy coefficients" for various building materials (see Table 3)."

 

33.
Source3: http://www.boralgreen.shares.green.net.au/research3/chap7.htm8

Table 7.4 Altered carbon dioxide values, to include non-energy related sources (all values are in kg of carbon dioxide produced).

For similar house to Buchanan and Honey (say 375 m2 = 3,750 ft2 see above) Joanna Glover gives

Further mention needs to be made of the carbon dioxide values obtained for concrete, both within each house and overall. While the majority of carbon dioxide emissions from both the steel and wood components are incorporated in the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy, the manufacturing stage of a concrete LCA generates a significant quantity of carbon dioxide. This occurs in the calcinating of limestone, producing calcium oxide and carbon dioxide, during cement production (which usually comprises 12% of concrete, as mentioned previously in Chapter 2). In the production of
Portland cement (accounting for the production of 95% of North America’s cement); around 0.75 tonnes of CO2 are produced per tonne of cement from fossil fuel combustion in the rotary kiln, and a further 0.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of cement is released through the reaction of limestone [20]. Converting these to values per unit concrete production, gives an extra 0.06 tonnes of CO2 produced per tonne of concrete from the calcinating of limestone. With this addition, and the assumption that all other carbon dioxide releases into the environment from the steel and wood process are considered negligible, the values calculated above should be appropriately adjusted. Table 7.4 displays the newly manipulated data.


House Type

Steel House

Concrete House

WoodHouse

C02FromEnergy

40613

30168

17144

OfWhichSteel

9578

4908

1403

OfWhichCo2ForWood

377

937

4890

OfWhichCo2ForConcrete

6313

9858

2979

ExtraCo2CalcinatingConcrete

2232

3348

992

AdjustedTotalCO2

42845

33516

18136