SOLUTIONS
The overall goal is to examine the effectiveness of innovatiove building structural elements and systems, regarding their structural, environmental and energy performance in retorfitting existing buildings. This will be done with the aim of facilitating the emergence of products and tools for the development of high performance retrofitted buildings in resepect of sustainable development, in terms of design, consumption, building methods, materials, energy efficiency, costs and user comfort.
One of the original focuses of the project involved the development of technology and components for prefabricated façade elements. Following (i) discussions with European partners (through the European Construction Technology Platform) and SEAI, (ii) attending the Advanced Building Skins Conference in Austria, (iii) the focus of current and most recent research into the development of prefabricated thermal envelope elements and materials innovation and (iv) the numerous prefabricated products and solutions for retrofitting the thermal envelopes of buildings currently available in the industrial market and (v) the opportunities the on-going research into the real-time monitoring of dwellings is presenting, it was decided to refocus the research will involve the real-time monitoring of dwellings has been implemented to identify the most effective renovation measures that consider the profiles of (1) the physical building, (2) its occupants and (3) the community.
The focus is on evolving tools that provide 'performance based design' of building envelopes and potentially combine thermal comfort, acoustic, air tightness and fire resistance properties, building energy performance and provide solutions that influence on indoor environments. The key tools used in this work package are (i) Parametric design and optimisation (ii) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and (ii) whole building energy simulation, calibrated with field measurements from existing non-domestic buildings. Thus, the performance of existing buildings, which incorporate reliable monitoring systems will be evaluated in real-time conditions in the developement of this tool.
The retrofit stakeholder value chain is complex and fragmented. Decision makers lack the knowledge, tools, and confidence to act in order to overcome the barriers to building renovation to low-energy standards. Thus, we will aim to address this problem by developing a standards-driven, systematic approach to building retrofitting, with a holistic package of solutions for Ireland. This approach will utilise the information rich Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies. The initial focus will be on upgrade of public buildings and housing stock as demonstrators, particularly on improvement of least energy efficient buildings.
The development of methods and measures of engagement and more sustainable consumption behavioural models in Irish buildings can help reduce the direct rebound effect of occupants taking excessive levels of increased comfort. Such measures may be beneficial in ensuring net CO2 savings are achieved after insulation works and that Ireland’s national commitments in terms of CO2 emission reductions are met. A business model addressing cost-optimality aspects for given building types and geo-clusters mainly in Ireland, but also in UK and the rest of Europe will be addressed towards social context.
We will provide a tool to unlock new and more efficient ways of working at all stages of the project life-cycle, from the product development to the facilities management. Furthermore, it will offer a cost-optimal solution for achieving nearly zero-energy refurbishments, fully in line with the EU’s Energy Performance in Buildings Directive.
It is the aim to methodically assess Irish buildings from a lifecycle energy consumption and global warming potential (GWP) emissions perspective using ISO and EN standards. This study will build on existing tools, such as those developed by the ENSILC project, EeBGuide project, and inhouse tools developed by our research group in NUI Galway. The demonstrator buildings utilised will be used for calculating GWP and energy footprints that will promote efficient measurement and management of energy consumption from cradle to gate.
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT &
LIFE CYCLE COST
