CHILLED BEAMS AND FAN COILS
Sustainability and low embodied carbon
W
By Michael Ainley,
managing director of UK manufacturer Frenger.
ith the UK experiencing three heatwaves during 2022 it made it one of the hottest summers on record which highlights it is
more important than ever to address the need to reduce our embodied carbon emissions. This includes reducing embodied carbon emissions linked to building HVAC systems and assessing the products manufacture and operational life cycle as they do have an impact on the buildings footprint.
As building and construction is responsible for 39% of all carbon emission in the world as referenced in the World Green Building council embodied carbon report, with operational emissions (i.e., energy used to heat and cool and lighting the building) accounting for 28%. The remaining 11% comes from embodied carbon emissions, or ‘upfront’ carbon that is associated with the materials and construction process throughout the building whole life cycle As 80% of exiting building will still be in use in 2050 when the Net Zero targets come into effect, it is crucial that building designs look to use lower embodied carbon products and more energy efficient HVAC systems. Embodied carbon is understood as the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the manufacture of a product, its installation, maintenance, repair, replacement, and end of life. It covers the whole life cycle, excluding operational aspects and the potential
28 February 2023 •
www.acr-news.com
recovery, reuse, or recycling of materials. The embodied carbon referred too is the equivalent global warming carbon dioxide measured in kg CO2 or Global Warming Potential (GWP). The embodied carbon associated with building services design can be significant over a building's lifetime, due to the materials used and replacement rates. However, during the design stage the main previous focus tended to be more on minimising operational carbon emissions (i.e., amount of carbon emitted during the use of a building) however, the emissions relating to the rest of a building’s lifecycle were largely not taken into account. With improvements in energy efficiency and tightening UK regulations (such as new Part L Building Regulations), the amount of energy used in the operation of buildings has started to decline. This has increased the importance of the energy used to build them in the first place, particularly if we are to meet the targets of delivering zero-carbon buildings. A building’s whole life carbon emissions refers to both its operational and embodied carbon emissions, including as previously mentioned above, it’s materials, transportation of materials, the construction, repair, maintenance and even the deconstruction of a building. Unlike operational energy, embodied energy savings have an immediate impact on a building’s whole-life
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