Optimised Building Services and HVAC
Both the EU and the UK Government have set ambitious, legally binding targets (Climate Change Act 2008) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, with an intermediate target of 34% by 2020 (against a 1990 baseline).
Approved Document Part L of the UK Building Regulations is being progressively tightened up to move towards the Government’s target of all new buildings being zero carbon by 2019. The most recent revision came into effect in October 2010, and it is now apparent that this revision is pushing building designers to very high levels of energy efficiency.
However, the requirements are now so stringent that many design teams are resorting to the application of costly building-integrated renewable technologies in order to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings, instead of first considering the more cost-effective option of optimising insulation.
Kingspan Tarec® Insulate 1st Solution
Currently, there is an opportunity to optimise a buildings energy efficiency through enhanced levels of insulation, including the services pipework, that offers payback within the life of the installation.
A recent investigation into the benefits of pipe insulation in a Grade A office has assessed the various impacts of upgrading the levels of insulation on the pipework. This research has found that the inclusion of enhanced pipe insulation gives a payback well within its predicted lifespan.
Furthermore, the report shows that enhanced insulation reduces space heating carbon emissions by over 4%, space cooling emissions by over 2% and hot water emissions by over 1%. Therefore if the same analysis was carried out on a building where these building systems contributed a higher proportion of the total carbon emissions then the benefits of pipe insulation would be much greater. Examples of such buildings would include hotels, sports and leisure facilities, residential/care homes and medical care buildings.