DesignBuilder provides a basic report of the embodied carbon and equivalent carbon data for the building on the LCA and Embodied Carbon tab of the Cost and Carbon screen. The carbon data covers only bulk construction, glazing and PV panel materials and excludes embodied carbon in lighting, HVAC and other building services equipment.
The calculation is made by summing the embodied carbon data for each surface, window and PV panel in the model as follows:
Opaque materials - embodied carbon is calculated using construction material layers and the embodied carbon data for each material.
Glazing - embodied carbon is calculated using the Glazing CO2 carbon emissions and Glazing coating embodied CO2 settings on the Carbon tab of the Model options dialog and the area of windows x number of panes of each.
PV panel - embodied carbon is calculated by multiplying the area of PV panels by PV panels embodied carbon per area data on the Carbon tab of the Model options dialog.
The materials and constructions inventories are equivalent ways of showing the same data, but broken down in different ways. The total for the building is shown at the bottom.
Note: Embodied carbon calculations for models where the zone multiplier is used are not always 100% accurate because the embodied carbon for internal surfaces between multiplied zones and adiabatic component blocks can be over-estimated.
Note: The embodied carbon for glazing and PV panels can be defined on the Carbon tab of the Model options dialog.
An example Embodied carbon report is shown below.