Belgard Ambulance Base is situated in Tallaght Dublin 24, and the base required some important refurbishment works as well as extension works to provide changing facilities, a garage and staff administration areas.
IN2’s appointment included undertaking an energy analysis to determine how a carbon neutral performance could be achieved. This involved using Dynamic Simulation Modelling (TAS software) to create a representative “baseline” building energy model. The energy model was dynamically simulated hour-by-hour for an entire year using historic weather data with associated energy predicted for heating, domestic hot water, cooling, auxiliary (fans and pumps) lighting and equipment (office PC’s, IT etc).
IN2 then carried out an analysis of a various individual fabric improvement measures. It was found that improved glazing and external wall insulation were the most effective energy saving strategies. Further to the potential fabric improvements, a variety of potential Building Services improvements were analysed. It was determined that new lighting and daylight control measures would provide a very significant energy cost saving.
In addition, our analysis found that by maximising solar energy across the development carbon usage could be dramatically reduced. The photovoltaic (PV) arrays were applied to the ambulance bay parking canopies and were determined to be fundamental in ensuring that, despite the ambulance centre having an intrinsically higher energy usage than most buildings due to its 24/7 operational nature, a viable Carbon Neutral Performance was be achieved for the proposed development.
Overall, this resulted in a 100% carbon reduction meaning a carbon neutral performance could be achieved.
