14 C O N T E X T 9 9 : M A Y 2 0 0 7 DEVON DECELLES Finding out about embodied energy The IHBC set out to discover what research sources were available on the embodied energy of historic buildings. Buildings not only use energy: it takes energy to make them. This ‘embodied’ energy is all the energy required to extract, manufacture and transport a building’s materials, as well as that required to assemble it. As buildings become increasingly energy efficient, the energy required to create them becomes proportionately more significant in relation to that required to run them. Every building, no matter what its condition, has a large amount of embodied energy within it. What is more, the energy used in transporting its materials becomes part of a building’s embodied energy, creating an incentive to use local materials, and thus helping to give the building a sense of place. With this general theory in mind, the IHBC set out to discover what information could be found on embodied energy in relation to historic buildings from web-based sources. The exercise was intended to help identify research sources of embodied energy. It is a sample of what can be uncovered on the internet through simple searches. The information found was obtained by putting ‘embodied energy historic buildings’ into various Printed resources Alcorn, JA, Embodied Energy Coefficients of Building Materials, 1996 Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc, Assessing the Energy Conservation Benefits of Historic Preservation: methods and examples, Washington DC, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1979 BR390, The Green Guide to Housing Specification, Anderson and Howard, BRE, 2000 Energy Use for Building Construction, Energy Resource Group, Center for Advanced Computation, University of Illinois, and Richard G Stein and Associates, 1976 English Heritage, Building Regulations and Historic Buildings: balancing the needs for energy conservation with those of building conservation, an interim guidance note on the application of Part L, English Heritage, 2002. (Copies are available free of charge from English Heritage, Customer Services Dept, PO Box 569, Swindon, SN2 2YP. Tel 0870 333 1181.) Heritage Council of Victoria 2004, ‘Recognising the Embodied Energy in Heritage Buildings’, Planning News, Volume 30, No 4 Ireland, D, Empty Homes Agency, 2005, Estimate of the Embodied Energy in Building New Homes Compared with Full Modernisation of Existing Homes Jackson, M, Energy and Historic Preservation: a needed reassessment, APT Bulletin 36:4-47, 2005 Devon DeCelles is the IHBC’s membership services officer search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Ask. The documents and websites produced from these queries are from an international base, and were chosen from many more examples completing similar criteria, and so may not be considered accurate or approved practice by some. By visiting the Context page of the IHBC website (www.ihbc.org.uk) you will find a list of hyperlinks leading to websites related to embodied energy in relation to historic buildings. Topics covered include good practice guides to energy efficient building, life cycle assessment, reducing the environmental impact of housing development, and case studies. While searching the web, some sites quoted printed resources as reference for further research. Often these recurred. See below for a list of the printed sources found. The IHBC is committed to improving the knowledge and skills of its members. Use of this information, and reliance on any material published or transmitted by this exercise, is at the user’s own risk.The information obtained from this web-based search does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the IHBC.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=