A. J. Wright

Dwelling temperatures and comfort during the August 2003 heat wave

More frequent hot summers in the UK under climate change could lead to increased discomfort in dwellings, but there is little published field data on internal summer temperatures. Temperatures were measured in four dwellings around south Manchester and five dwellings in London during the August 2003 heat wave. Resultant statistics and various comfort metrics indicated a high level of discomfort in most dwellings, particularly in London. Daily internal temperatures were shown to correlate strongly with a time-decaying function of daily outside temperatures. Day and night temperatures were shown to relate to the type of structure. It is concluded that if heat waves become more common, this would lead to increased discomfort, with implications for health, mortality and housing design. Practical application: The results presented in this paper show what actually happens to a sample of dwelling temperatures during a severe UK heat wave, and the consequences for comfort. Little has been published on this previously. The correlations between time-averaged outside temperatures, and internal temperatures, provide a method for predicting dwelling temperatures in the future in a warming climate, without the need for detailed simulation and including real occupancy effects such as window opening, which are difficult to simulate reliably. Since there were many excess deaths during the August 2003 heat wave, health is an important concern. Work by others on this issue has shown that mortality rate is correlated with a three-day moving average of outside temperature above a threshold. This moving average correlates closely with the type of time-averaged outside temperature used in the paper. It seems quite possible that a 3-day moving average is a good predictor of excess mortality because it is also a good predictor of internal building temperatures, due to the mediation of thermal mass. This provides an alternative, or additional, explanation to that which explains the mortality as the cumulative result of high external temperatures acting on the human body over a few days, without considering the effects of buildings.

Energy flow management of a hybrid renewable energy system with hydrogen

This paper presents a preliminary study on a hybrid renewable energy system at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences Wolfenbüttel, Germany. The test-bed is made up of solar photovoltaics (PV), a micro wind turbine (MWT), a micro-CHP, a fuel cell system (FC), and two storage devices (a battery system and an electrolyzer). All the installations are in the range of 1 to 6 kW electrical power output/input; the focus of this research is renewable energy systems for residential applications. In addition to the presentation of experimental test results, a model of the hybrid system will be introduced.

Evidence for climate change relevant to building design in the UK, 1976-2000

Building design has traditionally assumed an unchanging climate. Various weather statistics are used for design calculations. These numbers are by definition fixed in an unchanging climate, but most will change if climate change is occurring. This requires a re-examination of the weather design criteria for buildings. Regular updating may be sufficient, but has the disadvantage of always being retrospective, and other approaches may be needed. Severe weather events and global temperature patterns are well documented, but little work has been done to look at the trends in climate statistics for building design. This paper presents trends in some key weather statistics used in building design over the period 1977–1999. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the use of climate statistics for building design when climate change is occurring.

Factory modelling: combining energy modelling for buildings and production systems

Traditionally, manufacturing facilities and building services are analysed separately to manufacturing operations. This is despite manufacturing operations using and discarding energy with the support of facilities. Therefore improvements in energy and other resource use to work towards sustainable manufacturing have been sub-optimal. This paper presents research in which buildings, facilities and manufacturing operations are viewed as inter-related systems. The objectives are to improve overall resource efficiency and to exploit opportunities to use energy and / or waste from one process as potential inputs to other processes. The novelty here is the combined simulation of production and building energy use and waste in order to reduce overall resource consumption. The paper presents a literature review, develops the conceptual modelling approach and introduces the prototype IES Ltd THERM software. The work has been applied to industrial cases to demonstrate the ability of the prototype to support activities towards sustainable manufacturing.

Home energy efficiency grants and advice: findings from the English Midlands

Research was conducted in Nottinghamshire, England to investigate public attitudes regarding home energy efficiency issues. Quantitative data were collected in the form of a postal survey, achieving over three hundred responses. Additionally, predominantly qualitative data were collected in semi-structured interviews in 15 homes. The issues investigated included the grant-funded energy efficiency measures installed by the public, the organisations providing grants, the means by which the recipients were referred to the organisations, and the publics preferences regarding energy efficiency advice. Findings were made about the local authoritys success in encouraging the take-up of energy efficiency grants, about the publics preferences for the means by which advice should be provided, about trust relating to energy efficiency grants provided by gas and electricity suppliers, and about peoples knowledge of the most effective energy efficiency measures. Additional findings were drawn about specific energy efficiency issues, including old heating systems and compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Small power and lighting load time series data for 27 departments across 8 UK hospitals

The electricity consumption of 27 departments was measured across 8 medium to large General Acute hospitals in England (largely by the authors, some data was donated and authorised for publication by the respective hospitals). The departments fall into 6 different categories which have been selected due to their prevalence in General Acute Hospitals (wards), their high energy intensities (theatres, laboratories, imaging and radiotherapy) or their distinct operating hours (day clinics). This data article provides floor areas and the time series of departmental power loads, mostly encompassing lighting and small power (but excluding central electricity use for ventilation, pumping and medical gas services). Comparative interpretations of the data are published in doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.02.052 [1].