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Homes
I am curious to know what the energy implications are of building a million new houses, and how much carbon dioxide is produced in the process. This could be a complicated calculation, but it must take into account the manufacture of cement, bricks, mineral extraction, transport of materials and and fuel for vehicles (lorries, diggers etc). Construction of roads, sewerage and power supplies (new power stations even) must also be significant..
On top of this, conventionally constructed houses have disposal problems when they reach the end of their life. Even now, the disposal of building rubble is difficult and could be almost impossible in the future.
Both impacts could be greatly reduced if houses were made substantially of wood. They would have fewer implications for climate change , and simplify the problem of disposal when a house reaches the end of its life.
Replies...
The solution is to build houses in wood, Here in Sweden almost all the det or semis etc etc are built in wood, very few actually on the building site, but in a nice cosy clean warm factory, where wall sections are built or complete rooms, and in many cases as a complete house right down to the wall sockets and taps on the bath or shower. They are then transported overnight to the site, lifted onto the prepared base, and by nightfall the family could be having an evening meal. Swedish houses are the way forward, even IKEA are going this way. No plastic window frames here, only good old fashioned wood, properly treated, lasts for donkies. Heating is provided by distant heating schemes or geothermic systems, gas, coal and oil are taboo here.
George
There are other solutions to the construction and discposal of homes in an ecological manner. The replacement rate of homes (those demolished to make way for new) is estimated at just under 1% per year, or alternatively by 2020 10% of the existing housing stock will have been replaced. So not all the homes are new, rather a proportion are replacement.
The Waste Action Resource Program has a defined solution for accounting for the recycled content in building products and all local authorities will ask for a % recycled content in all large new projects. Working with the larger developers on housing a standard is 15% and up to 60% can be reached at little extra cost. This in turn drives the market for manufacturers to imcorporate recycled products into their processes. Visit www.wrap.org.uk
On measuring the ecological impact of a new construction the ecological impact of new build homes. The standard method is to do a life cycle analysis of teh building (see BRE ‘Green Guide to Specification’). This takes account of the whole life costs of a product or service. This however does not truly show the ecological impact of the materials.
The company I formed in 2006 is looking at a way of measuring the impact of a building in terms of global hectares. This will be finished in the spring.
Alan
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