Palace Group provides comprehensive green building architectural and engineering solutions
The concept of green building has been strongly promoted these past few years in South Africa and globally following the emergence of environmental concerns, and the need to lead and qualify progress within the built environment.
The Green Building Council of South Africa, of which Palace Group is a member of, defines green building as “a building which is energy efficient, resource efficient and environmentally responsible- which incorporates design, construction and operational practises that significantly reduce or eliminate its negative impact on the environment and its occupants. Building green is an opportunity to use resources efficiently and address climate change while creating healthier and more productive environments for people to live and work in”
Palace Group implements technologies that support these objectives, firstly through physical design solutions and secondly through the implementation of technical devices.
PHYSICAL DESIGN SOLUTIONS
Our approach to the architectural design of buildings is carried out at various scales and from various perspectives. The realization of a building that exerts minimum impact on the environment, provides adequate space and efficient use of resources can only be achieved through a delicate balance between a series of parameters.
The first family of parameters we take into consideration is the physical context in which the building is to be erected, secondly its usage, users and beneficiaries, thirdly the comfort requirements and finally the building’s life cycle. Once this has been achieved, focus is then turned to the basic constitutive elements of the structure i.e. building materials and equipment and even building waste. Not only do we consider that green buildings should be built using sustainable materials they should also operate more efficiently.
Statistics indicate that buildings consume 30-40% of total primary energy in the developed world; and account for about 9% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Incorporating energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable green design features into all buildings has long been a top priority at Palace Group.
Our civil and structural engineers use a building systems approach to green buildings. By applying “Building Physics” on the behaviour of the whole integrated structural-space-system and following a careful design process, it is possible to produce buildings that use substantially less energy without compromising occupant comfort or the building’s functionality. The building system envelope behaviour influenced by factors such as building size and building-materials thermal mass, amount and extent of openings or “energy bridges”, climate, internal heat gains from occupants and their activities, lights and electrical equipment, Illumination (lighting) requirements, hours of operation, costs for electricity and other energy sources.
It is our view that implementing green design, construction, renovation, and operation of buildings could cut greenhouse gas emissions more deeply, quickly, and cheaply than any other available measure. The essential elements of a sustainable design encompassed in our solutions includes management and commissioning in accordance with CIBSE codes, indoor environmental quality elements, energy (sub-metering, artificial lighting design, etc), reduction of PVC costs through usage of alternative materials and emission elements (suppressants, thermal insurants and other measures that have zero ozone depleting potential).
TECHNICAL DEVICES
A cost-effective way in achieving optimal energy consumption in Green Buildings, in addition to a renewable energy component that would contribute to savings, is effective energy consumption management. The current, and generally accepted, way ahead in addressing this requirement lies in the effective monitoring and control of electricity consumption that is achieved by dedicated systems meeting this need, thereby necessitating the implementation of appropriate intelligent infrastructure. Included in our portfolio of technologies that are dedicated to optimal energy use in buildings are the essential components that form part of this infrastructure.
Moreover, our essential offerings effectively overlap with our Solar Water Heating technology, thereby ensuring a fully integrated, reliable, cost-effective and consistent holistic solution for Green Building needs.
Smart Meters are good in the efficient management of energy, one of the important components in green building. We provide smart eletrcity, water and gas meters to the build industry. Read more on our smart metering solutions and success stories www.grinpal.co.za