topic Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA in Sustainable design

LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Nymann — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 15:09:00 GMT

Graphisoft Center Danmark just released a public beta version of DesignLCA, a plugin to AC 26 that facilitates Eco designer star, in order to calculate a projects CO2 footprint throughout a given period of time (CO2eq/m2/anno)

DesignLCA calculates the "Global Warming Potential" as an "Early stage LCA"

With this method designers can (fairly) easy get a reading of your projects CO2 footprint where both construction and operation is taken into consideration.

There´s a Danish version, prepared to meet the danish regulations that will be implemented in 2023.

There´s an international version where vaules and settings needs to be adjusted to meet your local regulations, demands and EPD´s .

DesignLCA calculates the "Global Warming Potential" as an "Early stage LCA"

Feel free to download the international version from this website: https://www.designlca.com/

The Danish version is part of our Localization, and can be downloaded from our website:

https://Graphisoft-danmark.dk/download

Please leave a comment if this could be usefull for studio.

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

ananas — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 14:02:41 GMT

Hi Thomas!

Thank you for sharing. Looks very promissing! I am wondering if it also works with Archicad 25?

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Nymann — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 15:00:14 GMT

Hi Tjasa.

This plug-in only works w. AC 26!

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

ananas — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 15:02:39 GMT

ok, thank you will try it out! 🙂

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Nik — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:03:12 GMT

Looks really interesting Thomas. Is it possible to calculate embodied CO2 values for the project based only on the materials used and without having to set up zones, u-values and all the other things that EcoDesigner STAR requires? Cheers, Nik

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 19:35:20 GMT

Hi Nik

Yes. Using DesignLCA and entering EPD data to the materials you use in the project, you will get only the kg. CO2e of the materials, doors and windows.

In the Settings dialogue, you can manually enter the amount of sqm. of the project and DesignLCA will also show kg. CO2e per sqm. per and the kg. CO2e per sqm. per year.

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Nymann — Sun, 26 May 2024 13:37:48 GMT

Hi Nik.

You could in fact just create a schedule that will calculate the total amount of embodied CO2 from selected elements in your project. In our danish Template we actually have a schedule showing the total amount of CO2, sorted by layers, and then a schedule sorting the amount of embodied CO2 amongst the Building components in your entire project...

(If you dont wan´t to do the schedule yourself) You can find the Template in our localization, from the link above.

😉

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 16:18:03 GMT

Using the “Embodied Carbon” value in a schedule, you can get a quick and dirty LCA calculation from the Building Materials in Archicad with out reading a single EPD.

But it will be near impossible to create new materials from EPD’s, since you need to combine values from different LCA phases and convert the result from eg. m3 or m2 to kg. CO2e per kg. material, which is the only value for entering Embodied Carbon in Archicad.

Using DesignLCA you can enter the service life of each material from the EPD, to include CO2e from materials that needs replacement more often. You can also enter data from EPD’s for each LCA phase and you don’t have to convert the values, since you can choose between entering CO2e in m2, m3 or kg.

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Nik — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 09:54:18 GMT

Thanks Thomas. I've had a quick play with the beta version of the plugin - it looks really promising and something we would definitely use.

In the past I have used a component schedule to do a 'quick and dirty' embodied carbon calculation (see attached - the values are nonsense, just for testing!). This uses the density and embodied carbon phyiscal properties from each building material. The calculation is simply: volume x density x embodied carbon. This gives a result in kgC02.

Using your plugin I can't yet get the same answers that I would get from my schedule. I'm guessing this is a units issue? We've been using Archicad's embodied carbon figures in kgCO2/kg. We're only looking at stages A1-A3 at the moment.

Any guidance would be super helpful. Looking forward to seeing how the plugin develops.

Cheers, Nik

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 10:18:28 GMT

Hi Nik

If you use the Material browser in DesignLCA to enter LCA values ONLY for phase A1-A3, it should automatically calculate the LCA but only for the materials with this data entered.

Please note that in DesignLCA you can enter EPD data in m2, m3 and kg, without conveting the data to a certain unit.

Have you read the DesignLCA manual? Do you need more help than this?

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Nik — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:40:09 GMT

Thanks Thomas, I've got it to work now and your plugin values match my schedule. I think the issue was that I had the service life set to 0 in some of the materials. Setting it to 1 throughout has fixed that. I'll keep playing with things and let you know how I get on.

Do you have any recommendations for good sources of generic embodied carbon data? We're UK based. At the moment we just want to quickly compare design options at the concept stage to determine which is likely to perform better from a carbon point of view, but without having to get get too detailed about materials. Thanks again, Nik

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:42:59 GMT

Hi Nik.

Try ÖKOBAUDAT: https://www.oekobaudat.de/en

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Jaime-airc_digital — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 13:50:55 GMT

Thanks very much for the plugin, it is absolutely brilliant for early design integrated calculations and we are currently adapting our template file for UK standards.

I would suggest that some more automation for inputing values would be very welcome. Even just to be able to import and export the Building materials GWP values into Excel would be a great enhancement.

Also, please check the code so that the results units for comparison with national standards don't reset automatically to kg CO2eq/m2/a. It should stay on the metric indicated in the DesignLCA settings dialog.

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Hugopoggi — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 21:04:12 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for this plug-in, it seems so convenient and well done.

I'm having trouble to use the plug-in.

1) When i open the file an error message says " EcoDesigner STAR License activation Failed, Add-On functions will be disabled"

The evaluation Report can be done though.

2) When i try to use DesignLCA plug-in to go further in the analysis, i can find the plug-in on the tool bar at the top of the screen, but i can't use it because when the Energy Model Review window is open and i click to export the energy simulation, i dont have "Export to DesignLCA"

Thank you for your help,

Hugo

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 21:07:51 GMT

Hi Hugo

Are you sure you have the very latest update for Archicad 26 (build 4019)?

// Thomas

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Hugopoggi — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 21:13:11 GMT

Oups you re right. Its 3001. Will it also work for USA Version ? Which means imperial units ?

Thank you very much,

Hugo

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 21:42:37 GMT

Good question 😬

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Jaime-airc_digital — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 08:06:49 GMT

After adapting our template to use DesignLCA, I have some additional suggestions.

Being intended as a design aid, it needs to help the designer take decisions on the materials and composites used. I suggest that for this purpose, it would be great to implement some additional functionality:

- In the Building Material LCA settings list, the interface should be consistent with the material editor. It would be useful to be able to sort materials either by Name, ID or more importantly, highlight the materials present in the elements selected in the 3D window.

- Once the results are calculated, it would be really useful to see the individual elements impact on the calculation to be able to quickly identify them and propose alternatives. Also being able to filter them by either materials, composites or complex profiles to see which ones have the most impact.

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Thomas Graabaek — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 18:51:08 GMT

Hi Jamie

Thanks for your feedback.

I will try to find out, if we can add more functionality to the Material Browser in DesignLCA, but I don't think there it is possible.

But we definitely looking into how we can break down the total CO2e from materials into (preferable) a list of Buildingmaterials divided by Layer. In this way you can get an overview of the lowest hanging fruits. – Exactly as you suggest: as a design tool!

Thanks again and have a great day!

Re: LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

Yazan — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 10:08:34 GMT

Hi,
Thanks for sharing! However I have few questions :
-I've been trying with it a little bit and I'm getting unrealistic strange values with E* and very high values for doors, unlike the screnshots I saw on top, do you by any chance know why ?
-How does it calculates for doors and windows ? or where does it take the values from?
-Since there's no layer compination to select, does it calculates the whole elements in the file or for the current elements that are showing in the 3d view ?

Best regards.