F Musau

This paper investigates the challenges of achieving affordable low carbon housing in the context of the Scottish, UK, and Passivhaus Standards. It also investigates the potential for bridging the gaps between set targets and what is happening in reality, in order to achieve better performance of low carbon affordable housing at a wide scale. It looks at two case study housing projects “ Enkelt Simple Living and Tygh-Na-Cladach, completed in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Both are located in Dunoon, Glasgow, Scotland. The case study design compares the high environmental targets set in the design briefs of the two projects; their delivery processes; and the outcome. The analysis is based on identified common challenges to achieving low carbon homes in the context of a four stage process of the lifetime of dwellings. The two projects demonstrate the need for innovative processes and approaches of delivering housing to meet low carbon targets in the affordable sector of the market.

This work explores the extent to which computer simulation can quantify the energy impact of the temporal aspects of occupants and systems operation as influenced by space planning in office buildings. These are often difficult to quantify empirically. It investigates 5 typical office layouts, their typical space use densities and different occupancy levels. The software packages used are the TAS (Thermal Analysis Software), Lightscape, and Excel. Although the capabilities of the simulations overcome many challenges found in empirical methods, the inputs required to simulate the temporal diversity of occupancy and systems operations remain huge simulation challenges. So do user environmental perceptions and behaviour on controls.

The existing building stock is central to the mitigation of global CO2 emissions. The energy used in UK buildings includes avoidable waste of between 25% – 50% of the minimum required for user comfort and equipment. There are more refurbishment, conversion and renovation than new built projects at any time in the UK construction industry. These present rich opportunities for installing energy saving innovations. This paper assesses the energy saving potential of a ‘Control System for Energy Reduction in Vacant Environments’ (ConSERVE) in buildings with hot water heating radiators. The results show that the widespread application of ConSERVE can significantly reduce the UK's national energy use. The value of such a control system is therefore undoubtedly great in the context of UK’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Keywords: Energy saving, heating control, building occupancy patterns