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Research at Loughborough University during the period 2008-2013 in the areas of control, commissioning and design of advanced naturally-ventilated buildings has led to:
A subsequent KTP project with SE Controls has led to:
Alliance researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to refurbish existing buildings, which make up over 90% of our stock of over 26m buildings, to achieve a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 80% (domestic properties) and 50% (non-domestic). The research has underpinned a shift of emphasis by UK government from new to existing buildings and the formulation of incentives to encourage building owners to make energy-saving improvements. In partnership with not-for-profit, public and private stakeholders, it has been used by national and local agencies to highlight the potential of improving the energy performance of traditionally constructed, timber-framed and residential mobile homes and incorporated into practical guidance by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. It is also the technical foundation for an educational software package developed with 100 school children and teachers and praised as exemplary by Education Scotland.
This study presents the impact of research by Plymouth's Environmental Building Group (EBG) and Centre for Earthen Architecture (CEA) on industry and regulatory bodies. These interconnected groups research the manufacture, construction, preservation and performance (thermal, hygral and acoustic) of new and old buildings of diverse construction, including earth, straw-bale and hemp-lime. EBG/CEA research has impacted the energy consumption of 690+ homeowners (21st Century Living; DECC/Eden) and contributed to national standards for construction and conservation (BRE/DEBA/English Heritage). Industry partnerships/projects include: Zero Carbon House, Kevin McCabe Ltd; Carfrae Sustainable Design; Hukseflux; Cornish Lime Company.
Ground-breaking research in the field of Dynamic Insulation (DI) at Aberdeen University has contributed to international efforts to combat climate change through the reduction of the carbon emissions associated with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning of buildings. Through the establishment of a spin-out company and the development of the world's first modular DI product, jobs have been created and developers have been able to use the first commercially available DI products and systems to meet strict new environmental targets. The success of such projects has led to greater public awareness of the issues around global warming.
A development of six Creative Energy Homes (CEH) on the University of Nottingham campus provides a living test-site for leading firms, including E.ON, David Wilson Homes, BASF, Tarmac, Roger Bullivant and Igloo Blueprint to work with the University of Nottingham to investigate the integration of energy efficient technologies into houses. As a result of this work, Lovell homes has won a number of sustainable housing contracts, Roger Bullivant have developed and installed 30 SystemFirst™ foundation systems and Igloo Blueprint have built £7M worth of new homes. The research findings have informed the UK Government's "Green Deal" strategy, the Nottingham Community Climate Change Strategy and received widespread acclaim through a number of public engagement activities reaching out to over 5 million people.
The Environmental Building Group (EBG) is making an internationally-recognised impact on industry practice using building performance simulation research to look at the relationship between building use scenarios and building performance. In particular, research in building energy data analysis and the prediction of the impacts of climate change on UK building stock has enabled: C3Resources to increase turnover by 28%, double its workforce and win new international clients; Cornish Lime to develop a new product; RTP Surveyors to increase service provision; and Lend Lease and Wates Construction to change their strategies in relation to what/how they may build in the future.
The Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) is recognised internationally for its research in developing advanced computational numerical models for simulating the energy and environmental performance of the built environment. These models have been used by leading design practices in the design of major buildings and urban developments. This impact case study presents three models from this research activity that have been widely taken up by industry worldwide, namely, the `building energy' model HTB2, the urban scale `energy and environment prediction' framework EEP and the `building environment' model ECOTECT.
Application of the models, often linked (e.g. HTB2 is the numerical engine for EEP and is accessible within the ECOTECT framework), has resulted in extensive environmental benefits, through reductions in global CO2 emissions. Additionally, there has been a marked impact on practitioners and professional practices, through new guidelines for major international developments (e.g. Pearl Island Qatar and the Chongqing Ba'nan Low Carbon Development).
Research undertaken at the University of Cambridge Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) was the first to demonstrate that low-energy systems could be modelled in the laboratory and that the complex ventilation flows within buildings could be represented accurately by simple algorithms. These algorithms were implemented as a series of `low- energy' modules in the US Department of Energy whole-building simulation code EnergyPlus. EnergyPlus is used worldwide for building energy simulation and the user group currently has 3144 members. The use of this code has led to optimised design of a number of buildings, such as the New York Times HQ in Manhattan opened in 2009.
Approximately 70% of the existing building stock will still be in use in 2050. A series of projects funded by EPSRC, FP7, Historic Scotland and English Heritage has changed the level of awareness on the impact of climate change on the thermal and moisture performance of traditional and historic buildings when considering improvements to their energy efficiency. This has helped set the agenda for the refurbishment of traditional buildings, for example advice on for the Green Deal has resulted in DECC commissioning further work, including a Responsible Retrofit Guidance Tool developed by the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance.
Research by staff of the Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) at Strathclyde has resulted in advances in the state-of-the-art in dynamic building energy modelling as encapsulated within the Open Source ESP-r program. This new capability enabled practitioners to analyse phenomena and technologies hitherto not capable of being modelled in building simulation tools. The impact stems from the embedding of ESP-r within companies resulting in service improvement and job creation, and applications of ESP-r resulting in energy demand reduction, low carbon energy systems integration and environmental impact mitigation.