LCA Home LCA-VOC Home Coatings Counselor: Home Results (Demo)
| Please note: This is a draft version, intended to test usability and clarity. The data used in this version should be considered as illustrative only, and may or may not correspond with actual values. For additional information, or if you have comments or suggestions, contact Paul Chalmer at NCMS, paulc@ncms.org or (734) 995-4911. |
Coatings Counselor can help you evaluate the consequences of your paints and coatings choices.
It is designed for a wide range of users, from those with general interest to process engineers. You need to enter only a few pieces of information to start getting results from the system. But the more specific you can be about the kinds of materials and equipment you are using, the more definite the results will be.
The demonstration version below provides representative values for a typical auto body coating operation, applying a single coat. You can accept the default values, or you can change them to match your situation. Note that most numerical information is provided as a range (minimum and maximum), rather than a single number. The default values are intended to represent the widest realistic range for each number that you are likely to encounter. If you can supply a narrower range of values for your case, the range of the results will be correspondingly narrower.
In this version, Coatings Counselor will tell you how much energy was consumed, and how much greenhouse gas was generated, on a life-cycle basis, for the values entered. In addition to the impacts created directly when you apply the coating (solvents released, sludge generated, etc.), Coatings Counselor will consider many indirect effects (for example, the energy and wastes associated with burning fuel to supply power and heat to your equipment, to manufacture the materials in the paint, and to operate pollution control equipment). At present, the results do not include upstream impacts from production of the raw materials in the coatings. That information is currently being compiled.
You can generate alternative data sets for comparison by clicking on the "Vary" button at the top of each column. This will insert a copy of that column immediately to its right. Any of the input values can be changed anywhere in the column. The new results will appear when you click on any of the "Update" buttons. To help you read the results more conveniently, input values that are the same for all columns are listed below the results. But any row that has a variation is moved up to appear immediately above the results.
In the near future, you will find results for other impact categories, and sample input sets for coating operations typical of other industry sectors.