Did you know that buildings contribute to around 30% of global carbon emissions? Simple everyday tasks that we all do every day such as cooking, heating our homes and using electrical equipment such as computers all greatly contribute towards climate change. This is due to fossil fuel combustion methods used by energy companies to provide electricity. We can all take steps to reduce the amount of energy we consume. By doing simple things like remembering to turn off the light in rooms we are not in, and insulating your building to reduce your reliance on heating your home as much.
What Is Carbon Neutral Construction
Carbon-neutral construction is where the design and construction of a building do not contribute towards climate change. This is achieved through a combination of factors including:
- Building That Maximises Energy Efficiency: Including energy-saving features such as automatic lighting that goes off when you are not in a room, and insulation to maintain the temperature of the room to reduce reliance on having to heat or cool rooms, as temperature control mechanisms often use a lot of energy. You should also make sure that all of the windows and doors within the buildings are completely airtight as this reduces the amount of heat loss, you should also make sure that the windows in your house are at least double-glazed if not triple-glazed. If you are planning to do a office fit out you should consider ways you can reduce your offices impact on climate change.
- No Fossil Fuel Combustion Used In the Building Process: Using all-electric energy for the building process can reduce reliance on fossil fuels, eclectic energy can be produced by renewable energy such as solar panels and wind turbines.
- Produces Or Procures Zero Emission Onsite Energy: Including solar panels or other renewable energy options when your building is finished can reduce your reliance on on-the-grid electricity. You can even produce more energy than you use, and then you can sell the energy back to the electrical companies.
- Capacity To Store Renewable Energy For Another Time: Thermal sand batteries are a new invention that can store energy for months at a time, so you would be able to collect energy during the day using solar panels and use the energy collected at night when the sun is not visible anymore.
What is Carbon Positive Construction
Carbon-positive construction uses all of the components of carbon-neutral construction but through renewable energy, you are producing more energy than you use. This extra energy can be sent back to the power grid to power other buildings. You can do your own research and consult with an office fit out company to make your building more energy efficient. In order to make your building as carbon possible as possible you should:
- Get Energy-Efficient Windows: Windows with a high energy star rating are especially good at not letting warm air escape from your building. Energy star ratings are impacted by factors such as framing, number of glass panels and UV resistance.
- LED Lighting: This type of energy is highly efficient as it emits lower waste output in the form of heat coming from lightbulbs than traditional lighting. Differences in energy output are significant with LED lighting using around 70% less energy than incandescent lighting.
- Passive Heat Transfer: Thermal masses such as stone or concrete walls or floors that heat up during the day and release the built-up heat into the evening and night, warming the building up and reducing reliance on fossil fuel heating methods.
Conclusion
Carbon-neutral and positive buildings are slowly going to start cropping up near you as people become more aware of the impacts we all have on climate change and decide they want to do more to reduce their personal carbon footprint.
