LCA plugin Finally here :) DesignLCA

[Thomas Nymann]

Hi

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.

 

[ananas]

Hi Thomas!

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

[Thomas Nymann]

Hi Tjasa.

This plug-in only works w. AC 26!

[ananas]

ok, thank you will try it out! 🙂

[Nik]

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

[Thomas Graabaek]

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. 

[Thomas Nymann]

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.

😉

[Thomas Graabaek]

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. 

[Nik]

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

[Thomas Graabaek]

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?