Gillian Frances Menzies

Tailoring a future overheating risk tool for existing building design practice in domestic and non-domestic sectors

The Low Carbon Futures Project, as part of the Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) programme, has developed an overheating tool, based on probabilistic UK Climate Projections (UKCP09), to provide design advice for building adaptations in future. For dwellings this tool, initiated by a single simulation, relies on just hourly climate information to predict the internal temperature profile and for a non-domestic building, it includes internal activity profiles to account for lighting, equipment, metabolic gains and air change. To produce a tailored design tool, a qualitative investigation has been carried out to understand current building practices. This investigation shows that the two sectors take a significantly different approach to design, where dynamic building simulation is rare for domestic developments. The diversity of the non-domestic building stock poses different challenges and requires more detail to perform any overheating analysis, with dynamic building simulation playing a key role. The suitability of this tool, and the need to balance complexity and detail with usability and applicability, will be explored for the two sectors, with an approach for implementing this in the future proposed. Practical application: This paper compares current overheating analyses, as reported through correspondence with practitioners, with a suggested approach for a more detailed future overheating assessment using the latest climate projections. The required steps to bridge the gap between current and possible future design methods are explored for both the domestic and non-domestic sectors, with a prototype tool proposed that has been formulated with the aid of industry feedback. The described project is therefore able to translate complex building and climate science into an approach that is potentially useful for building practitioners.

Communicating future overheating risks to building design practitioners: Using the Low Carbon Futures tool

The Low Carbon Futures tool provides a probabilistic assessment of future overheating risks and cooling demands for domestic and nondomestic buildings in the UK. The approach adopted for the development of the Low Carbon Futures tool includes academic rigour within the development of the calculation engine, and also practitioner feedback throughout the process. This paper discusses the journey of the tool from modelling and simulation to the practitioner engagement, which took place by means of a questionnaire, focus groups and interviews with building design professionals aimed at understanding how the issue of overheating in buildings is being addressed. Throughout these events, the synergies between designing for low-carbon targets and designing for a future climate were explored. A final dissemination event was held to identify output styles that could be generated by the Low Carbon Futures tool that would be more practical and useful for specific client types. The workshop discussions serve to shape the outputs from the tool, and the feedback gathered will be used to inform a number of output styles, based on client type. Practical application : This paper outlines the development of the Low Carbon Futures tool for analysing overheating risks in buildings and discusses the practitioner feedback obtained from industry professionals on the use and applicability of the tool, in a final event hosted by the Low Carbon Futures research team in London. This event confirmed that practitioners need to be comfortable with the layout and format of the output in order to communicate its meaning and possible implications to a range of clients. A balanced output is required, which conveys some of the complexity of the underlying analysis, but which is easily understood and conveyed to a potentially lay audience.

Energy and carbon impact analysis of a solar thermal collector system

Much research effort is focusing on the reduction of mans carbon footprint in response to global energy and sustainability initiatives. The prudence of such activities is reliant on the embodied energy (EE) of materials and processes from cradle to gate, which influence overall energy of products and processes from cradle to grave. This paper evaluates the lifecycle energy and carbon intensity of a solar thermal collector with indirect coil heat exchange, for UK applications. The analysis is inclusive of materials, manufacture, transportation, installation and maintenance, and derives energy and carbon payback periods for a typical domestic system suitable for the domestic hot water needs of a three-bedroom home in the UK. The improvement analysis demonstrates how EE and carbon can be reduced through increased use of recycled materials, generating reductions in payback times of up to 10 months.

Towards an overheating risk tool for building design

Purpose – The work set out to design and develop an overheating risk tool using the UKCP09 climate projections that is compatible with building performance simulation software. The aim of the tool is to exploit the Weather Generator and give a reasonably accurate assessment of a buildings performance in future climates, without adding significant time, cost or complexity to the design teams work.Methodology/approach – Because simulating every possible future climate is impracticable, the approach adopted was to use principal component analysis to give a statistically rigorous simplification of the climate projections. The perceptions and requirements of potential users were assessed through surveys, interviews and focus groups.Findings – It is possible to convert a single dynamic simulation output into many hundreds of simulation results at hourly resolution for equally probable climates, giving a population of outcomes for the performance of a specific building in a future climate, thus helping the use...

Communicating threats of future climate change to building design practitioners

This paper describes a communication strategy aiming to bridge the gap between research and practice, by raising awareness of future overheating risks in buildings. It is the outcome of four years of intensive research to design a tool which can identify risk of overheating: the Low Carbon Futures (LCF) tool. A specific workshop, with a targeted audience, was held to understand better how the LCF tool can be adapted and used in industry. Participants included experienced private sector building design professionals, local authorities, housing associations, building services engineering consultancies, and members of corporate organisations. A recurring theme throughout the workshop was that the LCF tool is one that is useful to all sectors, and that further investigation should be made into expanding the use of the tool. The feedback gathered will be used to inform a number of output styles, based on client type.

Solar thermal and biomass energy

This is a very well-researched book which presents in detail a wide number of technologies at various stages of maturity, giving examples and application throughout. As the title suggests, this book is divided into two parts: the first relating to solar energy and the second to biomass energy. This book considers at length the problem of generating sustainable and large-scale energy for the future, at competitive costs, and without the production of greenhouse gases. In Part 1 the physics of the sun, its chemistry, behaviour and impact on the earth in terms of solar radiation are explored in detail, discussing various irradiated surfaces and presenting a diverse range of solar technologies which are currently exploited, or are subject to further research and development work. How the solar energy is utilised through low, medium and high temperature solar technologies is critically appraised, using a number of examples and case studies to demonstrate appropriate applications, complexity, system efficiency, advantages and potential drawbacks for both small (domestic) scale, and national applications. Passive solar energy systems are also discussed, explaining the function and operation of solar, Trombe and water walls, solar greenhouses and roof ponds. Significant attention is paid to Concentrating Solar Power technology, focusing on the areas of the world which are most likely to be able to generate renewable electricity at a competitive price. In Part 2 a detailed analysis of various biocrops is presented, discussing forestry and agro-forest behaviour, and considering a number of industry wastes which provide biomass fuels: wood, cellulose and paper, and anaerobic digestion processes which generate biomethane. Various commercial forms of fuel are presented and discussed with examples and case studies given. The discussion then moves to the topic of releasing energy from biomass fuels. Biochemical and thermochemical processes are explained and various technologies and plant for exploiting heat and/or energy from these processes are appraised. Discussions present the state-of-the-art technologies and their applications, presenting advantages and disadvantages, and challenges yet to be overcome. A gathering of all this information in one book is useful, providing the reader with both breadth and depth in the subject matter. This book interests both professionals and academics. Professionals within the construction and built environment industries would benefit from the open discussions about systems efficiency, advantages and disadvantages, while students and academic staff would also benefit from the detailed presentation of the principles, physics and chemistry of systems operation, research and design. The use of examples and short case studies, which are presented throughout the book, help the reader not only to grasp the size of the sustainable energy problem, but also witness developments which attempt to address this. A useful addition to each part in the book is a list of consulted websites which will allow the reader to investigate case studies and examples further. This book attempts to discuss some of the environmental impacts of biomass technologies and fuels compared to fossil fuel alternatives. This discussion would perhaps benefit from expansion to compare all types of electricity generating technologies, renewable and nonrenewable, in order to set the findings in context. A potential shortcoming to the widespread use of this book amongst students and the non-specialist is the price; a paperback version may be very well received.