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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/F038240/1
Title Decision support for building adaptation in a low-carbon climate change future
Status Completed
Energy Categories Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial) 20%;
Not Energy Related 80%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 100%
Principal Investigator Professor PFG Banfill
No email address given
Sch of the Built Environment
Heriot-Watt University
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 01 December 2008
End Date 31 May 2012
Duration 42 months
Total Grant Value £624,272
Industrial Sectors Construction
Region Scotland
Programme LWEC : LWEC
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Professor PFG Banfill , Sch of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University (99.998%)
  Other Investigator Dr GF Menzies , Sch of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University (0.001%)
Professor G Gibson , Sch of Mathematical and Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University (0.001%)
  Recognised Researcher Mr A Peacock , Heriot-Watt University (0.000%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , BSRIA (0.000%)
Project Contact , Fulcrum Consulting (0.000%)
Project Contact , CIRIA (0.000%)
Project Contact , Turner and Townsend (0.000%)
Project Contact , Parr Architects (0.000%)
Project Contact , Land Securities Trillium (0.000%)
Project Contact , Bennetts Associates Architects (0.000%)
Project Contact , Royal Institute of British Architects (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract Buildings must provide a comfortable internal environment for their users but how they perform depends on the weather to which they are exposed. The UK climate is already changing and this will demand different approaches to the way buildings are designed. However, the climate of the future cannot be predicted with complete certainty and this is reflected in the future climate scenarios being developed under the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP08), which are to be presented in probabilisticterms. This means that the information will be given in the form "There is a 5% probability that the temperature will be greater than (value)". This uncertainty is unfamiliar for building designers, who are used to taking fixed extreme summer or winter conditions and designing cooling, ventilation and heating systems of sufficient capacity to cope with these design conditions. Consequently, there is a risk that buildings may not perform as designed, either because the building systems cannot adapt to the changing climate or because systems are over specified to deal with a climate scenario that does not happen. Future building performance is additionally constrained by the need to minimise CO2 emissions, so it is not appropriate or sustainable to simply build in over-capacity, for example by providing air-conditioning everywhere to cope with future summer weather. Equally, highly insulated and well sealed low-energy buildings may overheat as a result of the heat gainedfrom the occupants and the equipment they use. These factors are likely to see a departure from the current way in which buildings are conceived and designs carried out as designers will need to take account of the frequency of occurrence of particular external conditions in selecting design criteria. This proposed project aims to develop a method of linking these probabilistic UKCIP08 climate scenarios to the requirements of the community of building services engineers. It will produce a practical method of designing economic and environmentally friendly heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in both existing and new buildings. The method will be based on probabilistic data but will not require the user to understand sophisticated statistical theory.The project has several interlinked parts. The UKCIP08 data will be transformed statistically to give a set of simple design conditions which can be used by practitioners. A series of criteria will be developed to identifyacceptable levels of building performance in the field of human comfort and systems provision. The performance of a series of case studies will be simulated from the probabilistic climate scenarios against these criteria. The experience of a senior building user group will be collected in order to quantify what needs to be known about building performance and the acceptability of risk so that buildings can be designed or adapted to accommodate the changing UK climate. The outcome will be a setof case study buildings in various UK locations which designers can call upon to support their decisions
Publications (none)
Final Report (none)
Added to Database 08/01/08