LCA - Life Cycle Assessment
LCA (Life Cycle Assesment) is an important part of BREEAM and LEED certification. Thanks to LCA, you can obtain valuable points in several certification categories. LCA helps you to analyze the life cycle of your product with consideration of its environmental impact and thus help you to obtain valuable points in several certification categories.
What you receive: Acquiring an economical property and sources for credits in BREEAM certification
Every building goes through a certain life cycle i.e. a period from the very creation of an idea through plan-drawing, its reconstruction, its exploitation and finally, its disposal. It is important to know, that a building can have several variations of life cycle. LCA is then able to make a comparison between particular variations and subsequently select the one that has the lowest impact on the environment.
LCA method is widely used in facility management. It considers both environmental and economical aspects of the life cycle of a building. The economical aspect is addressed in LCC (Life Cycle Cost) method that helps to determine the costs of building’s life cycle. Life cycle costs include operation costs, administration costs together with costs connected with technical parameters of a building. As the graph below shows, these costs represent the highest expenses of the life cycle. These areas should thus be most targeted when designing economical solutions as they represent the greatest potential for savings. Thus, these areas provide great potential for economical solutions.
Think about the economic impact of your building. By increasing the efficiency of its operation you can not only significantly reduce the costs, but also reduce the level of emissions.
LZC Technology
To acquire credits in BREEAM ENE 04 - Low and Zero certification technologies certification, we offer our clients processing of all components of the study in both Czech and English. With help of LZC technology, you will not only acquire all necessary points for obtaining the certification, but also contribute to the overall reduction of emissions and prevent further air pollution.
What you receive: A environmentally-friendly building and credits for BREEAM certification
Low carbon and Zero carbon technologies are popular for their minimal emission of carbon dioxide and zero emission of pure CO2. The study of LZC technologies comprises of several parts for which you can obtain as many as 2 credits. To acquire one credit, a Feasibility study needs to be completed. This study includes for instance selection of the most appropriate local LZC energy source, a study of LCC or eliminating inefficient sources of energy. To acquire two credits, it is necessary to complete LCA as well.
The calculation of daylighting, a study of interior and exterior illuminance
The purpose of day lightening is to assess the visual comfort of the project (possibly propose alterations) through dynamic simulation. Beside from ensuring the visual comfort, the studies can be also used as a base for certification BREEAM schemes and thus gain as many as 6 credits in HEA 01 - Visual comfort section.
What you get: A pleasant and good quality indoor environment with sufficient access of daylight
A sufficient level of daylight in the interior of the building not only helps to save energy, but at the same time is very important for our mental and physical health. An important factor is also a possibility of sufficient visual contact with external environment that minimizes the “cell effect”. However, these goals need to be reached without leaving a negative effect on the functionality of the space (e.g. by lightening with direct sunlight, light reflections on PC monitors, etc.) regardless of external conditions. However, these lighting errors can also be caused by inappropriately designed or placed artificial lighting inside the building itself. Nevertheless, simulation programs also address these problems and are able to design effective solutions to solve them.
A great number of parameters enter the simulation programs (e.g. building's orientation according to cardinal directions) the placement of working spots, specification of opening fillers, shadowing elements and their regulation, parameters, and placement of artificial lights). This output then is a very precise overview of the lighting conditions of the building. Studies can thus propose necessary alterations in the early stage of planning where expenses are lowest.
An Indoor Quality Plan
An important element of internal microclimate is also an uncontaminated fresh air. Besides CO2, vastly produced by residents of the building themselves, there are also other volatile gases which can be released by some of the materials used during the reconstruction or various exterior sources of pollution nearby the building. This study thus enables you to acquire 4 credits in HEA 02 - Indoor air quality category of BREEAM certification.
What you get: A comfortable and healthy external microclimate with sufficient amount of fresh air
An Indoor Quality Plan is constructed based on a series of verification methods and measurements that are focused on:
1) The location of the construction
2) The project of the building, primarily on designed concepts of ventilation and their subsequent implementation
3) Analysis of proposed materials for construction concerning their potential toxins release
4) Measuring the concentration of toxins after finalization of construction
The result is completion of the project, possible proposals for adjustments to reach a healthier and more comfortable microclimate while keeping the costs low. After finalizing the construction, the compliance with maximal limits of toxins shall be backed up by special measurements.
Surface Water Run-off
Another very important factor in evaluating the environmental impact of the building is its use of both drinking water and rainwater. Especially after periods of rainstorm, discharge of the rainwater directly to sewers can cause floatation of the canalization system or drains, thus leading to floods. From the environmental and economical perspective, we recommend to water infiltration or its retention and subsequent use for watering plants, toilet flushing, etc.
Our studies will help you to find an appropriate solution designed to meet individual needs of your project. Moreover, you can also gain 5 points in POL O3 - Surface water run-off category of BREEAM certification. In addition, if you implement an appropriate reuse of water sources, you can also gain more credits in WAT 01 - Water consumption category.
What you get: Ecological solution for surface water run off
This chapter consists of three subcategories addressing the following issues:
1) Flood risk - assessment of location of the reconstruction and its proximity to floodlike areas and plans
2) Surface water runoff - assessment of rainwater infiltration, retention in relation to its withholdable volume during rainstorms as well as throughout the year.
3) Minimizing watercourse pollution - prevention of watercourse pollution caused by water leakage from operations with dangerous compounds such as gases, oils, and other chemicals.
Thermal Comfort
A comfortable environment is created mainly by the temperature of a particular activity completed in a certain moment. However, the overall comfort of the building is also influenced by other factors such as stratification of the heat according to the height of the room, heat consumed by constructions inside the building, the speed of airflow, etc.
Should you decide to certify your building with BREEAM system, our study can help you to gain 2 points in HEA 03 - Thermal comfort study.
What you receive: A comfortable working environment
Thanks to dynamic simulation, it is possible to identify weak points as early as in the planning stage and adapt to various technologies and their regulation in such way that residents of the building feel comfortable in all of its parts. Besides the simulation and assessment of the project themselves, we also offer arrangements for removal of uncovered errors as well as verification of their effectiveness via follow-up simulation.
Strategy of secondary measurement
The motto of energy management is you can't manage what you don't measure. The basis of energy management and prerequisite of effective energy monitoring is a good quality measuring system.
The plan of secondary measurements completed by Enerfis can help you to gain 2 credits in ENE 02 - Energy monitoring chapter.
What you receive: Secondary measurement as a basis for energy management
For newly constructed as well as existing objects we complete projects of measuring systems which monitor the energy consumption towards the end-user or technologies. Optimization of the project in the way that the minimum of gauges are needed and related costs are low is a natural part of these projects. We design the measuring systems with manual as well as automated remote reading with hardware needed for collection, concentration and sending data to your requested server or to our system Enectiva.
A Study of Biodiversity
There is an increasing focus on minimalization of reconstruction's impact on the environment. The ecological architecture, however, does not involve only recycling of materials and economical energy management. Its important part is also a relationship with external environment and its impact on fauna and flora.
With help of our study of biodiversity, you can obtain as many as 7 credits in categories: LE 02 - Ecological value of site and protection of ecological features, LE 04 - Enhancing site ecology, LE 05 - Long term impact on biodiversity.
What you receive: A building with minimal impact on the environment
Our study is always based on assessment of the location of the building and both national and local strategic documents completed by authorities of national administrations. The output of such study is a report with a detailed assessment of the current state of building, its projects, proposition designed to enhance the biodiversity and benchmarking. Furthermore, we also add well-arranged maps where particular arrangements are displayed (e.g. locations appropriate for placing nest boxes, installation of insect hotels, etc.).
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