There are two ways buildings use energy.
During construction
Embodied energy: this term refers to the total energy required to manufacture or construct an object, material or building.
During use
Operational energy: this is the energy which is used on a daily basis for heating and electrical appliances.
You can reduce the amount of energy your building is responsible for by:
- Using low impact building materials
- Making your building more energy efficient by:
- using high performance windows
- use of natural daylight
- using low energy lighting
- having high levels of insulation
- installing heating controls
- monitoring to check your energy usage
- Using low carbon technologies to reduce the amount of fossil fuels to heat, light and cool your buildings, such as:
- gas condensing boilers
- solar thermal panels for hot water
- photovoltaics for electricity generation
- wind turbines (where appropriate)
- bio mass (if a local supply can be secured)
- heat pumps