Description

Scotland has a target to be Net Zero by 2045 and the built environment has a big role to play in this goal, with new and refurbished buildings designed to be as energy efficient as possible. Modelling and simulation tools play a big part in helping engineers and architects design energy efficient buildings, however they are usually applied with the assumption that a building operates perfectly, failing to account for the effect of degradation on performance. Degradation is a broad term and includes acute problems such as failures of components like fans and pumps in the heating and ventilation system, and more chronic issues such as deterioration in the performance of insulation and other fabric materials, reduction in building airtightness and deterioration in the performance of local supply technologies such as roof-mounted photovoltaics (PV).

Why is this important? A building design which is modelled as net zero, or highly energy efficiency and then built may not be net zero or energy efficient a few years after construction, as its performance degrades and yield from local renewable sources reduce over time due. At the most basic level, this could result in a building owner facing higher energy bills than expected, but at the larger scale could result in Net Zero and climate change targets being missed.

Key Objectives The objectives of the project are:

(1) review the literature on degradation of building materials and airtightness over time;

(2) look for datasets and research on the failure of components in buildings;

(3) develop models for the degradation of key components and thermal performance parameters such as conductivity of insulation, fabric air tightness, etc.;

(4) develop a performance assessment methodology to assess the energy performance of a building factoring failure and degradation over time;

(5) select case study buildings and use the degraded performance models with a building energy modelling tool to illustrate the impact of degradation on energy resilience.