Abstract
The likely increasing temperature predicted by UK Climate Impacts Program (UKCIP) underlines the risk of overheating and potential increase in cooling loads in most of UK dwellings. This could also increase the possibility of failure in building performance evaluation methods and add even more uncertainty to the decision-making process in a low-carbon building design process. This paper uses a 55-unit residential unit project in Cardiff, UK as a case study to evaluate the potential of thermal simulations to identify risk in the early design stage. Overheating, increase in energy loads, carbon emissions, and thermal bridges are considered as potential risks in this study. DesignBuilder (DesignBuilder Software Ltd., Stroud, UK) was the dynamic thermal simulation software used in this research. Simulations compare results in the present, 2050, and 2080 time slices and quantifies the overall cooling and heating loads required to keep the operative temperature within the comfort zone. Overall carbon emissions are also calculated and a considerable reduction in the future is predicted. Further analysis was taken by THERM (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA) and Psi THERM (Passivate, London, UK) to evaluate the thermal bridge risk in most common junctions of the case study and the results reveal the potential of thermal assessment methods to improve design details before the start of construction stage.
Highlights
The UK government had, until recently, set an ambitious target of new dwellings to meet zero carbon requirements by 2016
‘Fabric first’ is an approach taken in order to achieve the target which is on the basis of increased and improved insulation and reduced thermal losses by removing thermal bridging and increasing air tightness [3,4]
This research emphasised that brick and block construction systems with a higher level of thermal mass may result in less energy consumption over their lifetime in comparison with lightweight construction systems, such as timber frame and steel frame
Summary
The UK government had, until recently, set an ambitious target of new dwellings to meet zero carbon requirements by 2016. The recent usage of MMC with high levels of insulation in the UK has raised an issue regarding potential overheating risk [5]. This could become more severe as recent predictions show a considerable shift in temperature by 2080 [6]. Sajjadian [7] revealed the significance of alleviating such risk by modern and traditional passive design features, and highlighted the fact that thermally-lightweight homes might experience levels of discomfort due to higher room temperatures. Orme et al [8] presented a study which clarified that in a lightweight, well-insulated house an outdoor air temperature of 29 ◦ C may cause overheating to more than 39 ◦ C inside the building. Andric et al [9]
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