Learn more about Bryden Wood’s Design to Value approach to Hospital Design and Construction.For many, Christmas is a time for family films.

Grid electricity carbon factor.The electricity grid had a much higher carbon factor a few years ago than it does now.

This is due to coal plants, etc.However, substantial development and investment in recent years by the government and private bodies has reduced the carbon factor of the grid, through the use of renewables, nuclear power stations, and so on.The National Grid is responsible for working out the carbon factor for the entire grid.

They have scenario modelling and are aware of where things could end up in the best case scenario.However, they also look at what’s happened over the last year.

This means we know what’s happening in the UK in terms of energy balance.

We can use that data when considering sustainability in our designs to give a very detailed, current understanding of what the electricity grid is, and what that means for buildings.. We can also use their predictions to understand how the grid is going to decarbonise over the next five to ten years.Laboratory air-changes will be many times higher than those found in an office.

This is driven by the regulations, pressure cascades, cooling loads, dispersion rates, local extraction, higher levels of filtration, and ideally some degree of futureproofing.For Containment Level 3 (or BSL3) and above or cleanrooms, air-changes will increase further still, often becoming impractical for an office conversion.

In addition, it may be necessary to separate lab HVAC systems from other parts of the building..The top priority should be to optimise the HVAC design with a view to reducing the amount of plant and riser space required.