Saving Energy
Energy use in our society is almost always associated with pollution and habitat destruction so all types of energy use are worth looking at.
- While a house is being built
- reducing embodied energy of the building materials
- reducing associated ‘building site’ energy
- During its lifetime
- Upon demolition
Where can the biggest savings be made?
Undoubtedly the main savings are to do with while the house is in use and are accounted for by electric and heating bills so this is all very measurable. Particularly the heating and fixed lighting are important because, especially with the heating, it is very difficult to increase the insulation values of the structure after it has been built. It may last for hundreds of years in basically the same state that it was built originally. Items such as electrical appliances and movable lighting are important but can get changed every decade or two.
The embodied energy is often cited as being much less important than energy in use (sometimes mentioned as being very roughly a tenth) but that way of looking at it is based on the notion of traditionally very high levels of energy in use. Once you start to reduce the energy in use then the embodied energy starts to take on significance.
The energy associated with building sites has had very little study, especially for self build. It is probably mainly to do with transport costs, which can be relatively high, particularly in the countryside where delivery journeys for materials can be quite inefficient.
