Calculating green house gas emissions for buildings: analysis of the performance of several carbon counting tools in different climates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/ic.09.026Keywords:
carbon calculating tools, low carbon architecture, sustainable architecture, green buildings, energy modelingAbstract
The first step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings is to be able to count them. If this counting is integrated in the design process the impact of architectural design strategies can be evaluated more easily and a building with reduced emissions can be developed. Fifty greenhouse gas calculators and energy modeling software were compared in the main areas in which buildings are responsible for carbon emissions: operation, water, construction, waste and transportation to and from the building. These tools had to be free and easy to use so that they could be used by everybody in the initial phases of the architectural design process, while providing sufficient precision to provide useful input to the designer. The effect of modifying the envelope insulation, the quality of the windows, the efficiency of the heating and cooling systems, and integrating direct gain and night ventilation, on operation emissions was evaluated with two energy modeling tools: HEED and Design Builder. Results demonstrated that implementing appropriate design strategies significantly reduced emissions from operation in all climates. An easy to implement protocol that combines several tools for GHG counting in buildings is provided at the end.
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