Sustainable buildings

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Do we care - DO WE CARE ENOUGH?

http://environment.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=environment&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTUiP6dqPynE


Take a look at the video trailer from Al Gore who used to be the next President of the United States


Has anyone yet considered just how much energy can be saved by reducing the height of buildings by 10%.

First of all how can we reduce the height?

Well, normal airconditioning takes up about 600mm(2 feet) in the false ceiling.
Thanks to Bill at the big M, most intelligent offices now use raised access floor for cable management to network the PC's together and that has increased the height not reduced it by about 150mm(6 inches).

So why don't we consider increasing the floor void by say 150mm(6 inches) and using this void as a plenum to distribute conditioned air to the office space aswell as the cables and other services?

Now suddenly we dont need 600mm (2 feet) in the ceiling for ductwork and we can save about 450mm (18 inches) in height floor by floor.

Most buildings are less than 4m(12 feet) floor to floor and so this approach could save more than 10%, and in some cases 15%, in overall height. I saved a developer 35 m on the height of a building using this approach. Thats the equivalent of a 10 floor office block. I actually saved him about $7 000 000 US into the bargain!



I was in Shanghai last week and am in Delhi this week and construction is continuing relentlessly.

With the above solution we could reduce the amount of all vertical elements of a building (Curtain Wall, lift shafts,stairwells,Columns, service risers etc) and every 10 buildings we would save enough material to build an identical building "Free of Charge" . What will that do in someway to reduce demand for world resources?!

Now because the buildings are 10% lower they receive 10% less solar gain and thus the chillers and air handling plant will be less than a normal height building.

As a result the power supply to the building will be less.

The power station at the end of the road will work less and the pollution will be lower.

The energy required to mine and produce the materials will be less - the number of trucks to deliver the materials to the construction site will be less - the congestion in the streets will be reduced minimising waste of fuel from all the poor souls struggling to drive through the jams to work and then to sit in poorly air conditioned tall buildings.

I have been developing this idea for nearly 20 years and it seems that the world has started to sit up and listen to the harsh facts of Human impact on Global warming.

They ain't making any more oil. In fact they are beginning to struggle to find enough even to meet current needs.

The world population is increasing at about 1 billion every 10 years.

There were 9 million bicycles in Beijing (thanks Katie) but now there are probably 9 million motor cars and there seems no let up to this growth.

Oil is needed for much more than heating and motor cars. Oil is used to produce pesticides, for example. As the world population increase the available surface for agriculture is steadily reducing (Roads,houses,schools,hospitals etc) so the need for pesticides to maximise food production increases. Fertilser is made from Ammonia which is developed out of Natural Gas which will probably run out about 10 years after oil.

Plastic products that we all come to rely on are also made from oil.

So when (not if) the oil runs out are we all prepared to take a drop in our standards of living. I think not easily- so lets get started now. Lets start saving the stuff.

Confuscious he say many hands make light work. I say many hands switch off 60watt light bulb.
6 billion 60 watt light bulbs is 360 million kilowatt hours every hour. That is one hell of a lot of fuel.

Whilst I was in Shanghai I got to thinking about how big the problem is becoming and how small each of us is.

Go to work on an egg they used to say. Well now 30 million eggs are consumed daily in the UK.
In China it is probably nearer to 700 million eggs daily.

Now if an egg weighs about 2 oz you will need about 2800 forty ton trucks to deliver these eggs to your breakfast plate. Each truck uses about a gallon of diesel for each 8 miles . In the USA the average distance travelled by a piece of food from production place to place of consumption is about 1500 miles. so to deliver 700 million eggs every day China will consume about 2 million litres of Diesel - just to put an egg on your plate.

I am concerned that there seems far to little action for such an important situation. Rio Summit, Kyoto, but what is actually happening.

I work in the construction sector - we consume 40% of world energy making and operate buildings. We might be small but together we can achieve huge savings.

Anyone interested please take a look at my website www.flexiblespace.com
and my paper the "real and hidden cost benefits" ........


do we care? DO WE CARE ENOUGH?

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