When does this building fall off its carbon path?
Enter a building’s yearly electricity and gas. See the year its carbon per square metre rises above the CRREM 1.5 °C limit, and every step of the working.
Worked example · about 2 minutes · the method from DC-LEARN Module 010
What it does
Works out how much carbon a building gives off for each square metre of floor, and checks it against the limit investors use, year by year to 2050.
What you need
The floor area and a year of electricity and gas use, in kilowatt-hours. Both are on the energy bills.
What you get
The year the building goes over the limit if nothing changes, a chart, every step of the sum, and what a heat pump would change.
What it is not
Not a certified carbon assessment, not a valuation and not advice. It is a way to learn how the check works.
This is a teaching example. It works on an example building and uses rules of thumb and published averages, so its answers are rough guides, not advice. It is not a design, a survey, a quote or a valuation. Before you act on anything about a real building, ask a qualified engineer who has seen it.
What you type stays on your device. This page sends nothing anywhere and keeps nothing.
Green line: the CRREM 1.5 °C limit for this building type. Dark line: this building. Dashed line, with a heat pump: the building as it is now, for comparison. Grey band: the years it sits above the limit.
Show the working
About this worked example
Words used here
- CRREM
- The Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor. It publishes a yearly carbon limit for each type of building that lenders and investors check against.
- 1.5 °C path
- The limits that fit the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming to 1.5 °C. They fall every year, towards almost zero by 2050.
- Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
- The unit on an energy bill. One kWh runs a 1,000-watt heater for an hour.
- Grid factor
- How much carbon each kWh of electricity carries. It falls as more of Ireland’s power comes from wind and sun.
- Heat pump
- An electric heater that moves heat from the outside air or ground, giving two to four units of heat for each unit of electricity. A measured Irish example gave 2.6 over a year.
What it does not do
- It is not a certified CRREM assessment. A formal one needs verified meter data and an accredited assessor.
- It assumes the building does not change. Real plans change the answer.
- It covers electricity and gas only, not oil, district heating, refrigerant leaks or on-site solar.
- It is not investment, valuation or design advice.
Learn the whole method
DC-LEARN Module 010 teaches carbon accounting, CRREM pathways and how to plan a credible route to net zero, on one teaching building, step by step.
See Module 010