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Understanding and Improving the Building Fabric Thermal Performance of Existing...
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Understanding and Improving the Building Fabric Thermal Performance of Existing Dwellings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2018) | Viewed by 12748

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. David Johnston

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Leeds Sustainability Institute, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
Interests: airtightness; building performance evaluation; climate change and energy use; coheating testing; energy and carbon dioxide emission modelling of the UK housing stock; energy and environmental monitoring of buildings; thermal comfort; low carbon housing and sustainability and the built environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In most industrialised countries, the domestic sector makes a significant contribution to national energy use and the associated CO2 emissions. Consequently, it is widely acknowledged that if the effects of climate change are to be mitigated and national CO2 emission reduction targets are to be met, then significant reductions in the CO2 emissions attributable to dwellings will be required.

One factor that can have a considerable impact on the energy use and CO2 emissions from dwellings is the performance of the building fabric. Traditionally, the performance of the building fabric has been taken for granted. However, in recent years a growing body of evidence has emerged which has revealed that the measured in situ performance of the building fabric cannot be taken for granted, but is instead often much greater than that predicted or originally intended. This discrepancy in performance is often referred to as the building fabric thermal ‘performance gap’. It is also recognised that dwellings tend to have traditionally slow replacement cycles and long physical lifetimes, so new construction will only make up a small proportion of the overall domestic building stock over the coming decades. Consequently, the majority of the dwellings that we will be living in by the middle of this century, are already built and occupied today. Therefore, if we are to achieve significant reduction in CO2 emission emissions within the domestic sector over the coming years, it is imperative that we not only understand how the building fabric performs in situ in existing dwellings, but research efforts are devoted to developing appropriate methods and techniques that can improve the thermal performance of existing dwellings.

For this Special Issue of Buildings on “Understanding and Improving the Building Fabric Thermal Performance of Existing Dwellings”, we invite original papers or state-of-the-art reviews dealing with the issues surrounding the fabric performance of existing dwellings, the results of thermal upgrade measures undertaken on existing dwellings or methodologies and techniques that can be used to quantify the fabric performance of existing buildings in-use.

Prof. David Johnston
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Airtightness
  • Building fabric
  • Coheating
  • Dwellings
  • Heat flux
  • Heat loss
  • In situ performance
  • Performance gap
  • Retrofit
  • Thermal bypass

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3675 KiB  
Article
Variations in the U-Value Measurement of a Whole Dwelling Using Infrared Thermography under Controlled Conditions
by Alex Marshall, Johann Francou, Richard Fitton, William Swan, Jacob Owen and Moaad Benjaber
Buildings 2018, 8(3), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings8030046 - 19 Mar 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 7689
Abstract
U-values of building elements are often determined using point measurements, where infrared imagery may be used to identify a suitable location for these measurements. Current methods identify that surface areas exhibiting a homogeneous temperature—away from regions of thermal bridging—can be used to obtain [...] Read more.
U-values of building elements are often determined using point measurements, where infrared imagery may be used to identify a suitable location for these measurements. Current methods identify that surface areas exhibiting a homogeneous temperature—away from regions of thermal bridging—can be used to obtain U-values. In doing so, however, the resulting U-value is assumed to represent that entire building element, contrary to the information given by the initial infrared inspection. This can be problematic when applying these measured U-values to models for predicting energy performance. Three techniques have been used to measure the U-values of external building elements of a full-scale replica of a pre-1920s U.K. home under controlled conditions: point measurements, using heat flux meters, and two variations of infrared thermography at high and low resolutions. U-values determined from each technique were used to calibrate a model of that building and predictions of the heat transfer coefficient, annual energy consumption, and fuel cost were made. Point measurements and low-resolution infrared thermography were found to represent a relatively small proportion of the overall U-value distribution. By propagating the variation of U-values found using high-resolution thermography, the predicted heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was found to vary between 183 W/K to 235 W/K (±12%). This also led to subsequent variations in the predictions for annual energy consumption for heating (between 4923 kWh and 5481 kWh, ±11%); and in the predicted cost of that energy consumption (between £227 and £281, ±24%). This variation is indicative of the sensitivity of energy simulations to sensor placement when carrying out point measurements for U-values. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding and Improving the Building Fabric Thermal Performance of Existing Dwellings)
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1911 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Relationship between Measurement Length and Accuracy within Steady State Co-Heating Tests
by Samuel Stamp, Hector Altamirano-Medina and Robert Lowe
Buildings 2017, 7(4), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings7040098 - 23 Oct 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4544
Abstract
Evidence of a fabric performance gap has underlined the need for measurements of in situ building performance. Steady state co-heating tests have been used since the 1980s to measure whole building heat transfer coefficients, but are often cited as impractical due to their [...] Read more.
Evidence of a fabric performance gap has underlined the need for measurements of in situ building performance. Steady state co-heating tests have been used since the 1980s to measure whole building heat transfer coefficients, but are often cited as impractical due to their 2–4 week test duration and limited testing season. Despite this, the required conditions for testing and test duration have never been fully assessed. Analysis of field tests show that in 12 of 16 cases, a heat loss estimate to within 10% of the result achieved across a full test period can be achieved within just 72 h. These results are supported by simulated tests upon a wider range of dwellings and across wider environmental conditions. However, systematic errors may still exist, even in cases of convergence and cases with significant uncertainties may never converge. Simulated examples of traditional dwellings and those built in line with current building regulation limits may be tested for more than half the year. However, even when simulated with reduced uncertainties, dwellings with low heat loss and high solar gains, such Passivhaus dwellings and apartments, could be successfully tested for just 22% and 12% of a year respectively, demonstrating the limitations of the co-heating method in assessing such dwellings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding and Improving the Building Fabric Thermal Performance of Existing Dwellings)
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