Unfortunately, this in turn means that the toilets are located on the façade, blocking daylight and views out, and thereby interfering with design for wellness principles..
On one hand, a Passivhaus building will need triple glazing, additional insulation and airtight membranes.The heat pump may contain refrigerants with high global warming potential and the MVHR unit will require insulated ductwork.
Much of this may be made out of materials with high embodied carbon such as aluminium or blown plastics.This additional material volume becomes additional embodied carbon.. On the other hand, a Passivhaus design tends to be a more compact shape, thus less materials used.Due to its more efficient envelope performance, a Passivhaus building needs a small heating system, and due to its reduced energy demand, it requires a smaller PV array.
These characteristics, when coupled with a focus on procuring low embodied carbon materials and equipment, can deliver objectively low embodied carbon designs, despite the additional material volume.. Based on the above, it can be observed that some of the inherent characteristics of Passivhaus increase embodied carbon whilst others reduce it.Taking a 200 m2 house, (10 m x 10 m x 2 storeys, 40 % WWR) as an example, Bryden Wood has done a rough estimation of the impact that Passivhaus distinctive strategies have on embodied carbon:.
Adding triple glazing instead of double glazing would increase carbon around 6 kgCO2/m2 over its lifetime.
Adding a MVHR and ductwork would increase carbon by 6.5 kgCO2/m2.And nowhere is this more relevant than in data centre design.. A data centre is about performance above all – minimising cost per kW, maximising IT yield per square metre, minimising energy and water consumption, maximising the efficiency of M&E building services, and minimising waste..
There are standard ways to address all of these value drivers, and many companies to do that.But to really raise the bar on what can be achieved with data centre design and M&E services, it’s essential to understand the mechanical and electrical systems, the architecture and the structure as being intimately interconnected and fully interdependent.
Each of these facets must work in harmony to maximise the potential for optimal data centre design and that is impossible to do when the project is divided up and these areas are treated separately..It is, however, possible to achieve through an integrated design approach and.