Performance Evaluation of Well-Insulated Versions of Contemporary Wall Systems—A Case Study of London for a Warmer Climate

Seyed Sajjadian

doi:10.3390/buildings7010006

Abstract

Climate change and its consequences are of a great concern and the likely increasing temperature would add more dilemmas for the choice of passive design options. The performance of building envelopes is one of the key determinants of energy use and thermal comfort. This research presents an evaluation of commonly used construction systems (lightweight and heavyweight) with different levels of thermal mass. The performance of different construction combinations is quantified on the basis of their impact on thermal comfort and energy consumption for current and future time slices in London, UK where climate change impact is expected to be extreme. A flat model is examined as a case study to model the performance of the construction systems with low, medium and high level of thermal mass. The dynamic thermal simulation software used was DesignBuilder, which employs EnergyPlus as its calculation engine. In essence, this study establishes a new approach for assessing the performance of well-insulated contemporary construction systems on the basis of overall annual thermal comfort hours and energy consumption. Results indicate limited advantage of heavyweight construction systems in a changing climate.

Highlights

IntroductionThe government had set, until recently, an ambitious target of two million new dwellings by 2016 and identified the need for house improvement plans to achieve zero carbon targets
In 2007, the UK government’s Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)issued “Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable” [1], which addressed the issue of the UK’s housing supply shortages
It seems that the Steel frame wall (SF) system gives the lowest discomfort hours for the current climate but does not remain the same in future weather conditions

Summary

Introduction

The government had set, until recently, an ambitious target of two million new dwellings by 2016 and identified the need for house improvement plans to achieve zero carbon targets. The plans included promoting “Modern Methods of Construction” (MMC) as well as building standards [1]. Thermal mass and high levels of thermal insulation are expected to play significant roles in dwellings achieving these high performance standards. It can help to regulate the indoor temperatures of a building [2]. The recent usage of MMC in the UK housing has caused a new debate on the value of thermal mass. A number of studies suggested that well insulated buildings with low level of thermal mass might result in higher uncomfortable room temperatures [3,4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion