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Work starts on old-style house in test chamber |
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13 Aug 2010, 11:01 AM
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Building on the University of Salford’s Energy House - a replica of a pre-1920s, traditional-style terrace property constructed within a three-storey, sealed testing chamber - has begun. To ensure the authenticity of the house, ISG, the project’s main contractor, is using a host of reclaimed building materials including timbers, roof tiles and over 20,000 bricks from recently demolished North West terraced homes. The contractor will also be adopting traditional construction techniques and skills to create the replica property.
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The Energy House, which will take around three months to build before being fitted out as a typical, functional 21st Century family home, is being constructed to test the energy efficiency of old housing stock.
A state-of-the-art laboratory is being built next to the house, which will control and monitor the effects of a range of external climatic conditions within the testing chamber, including rain, snow, winds and up to 80% humidity. Researchers will be able to accurately monitor heat loss, domestic energy usage and CO² emissions, providing an unrivalled insight into the efficiency of older homes within the UK. To accurately recreate the effect of an adjoining terrace property, ISG is actually building one and a half houses within the sealed chamber.
In addition to academic research, the Energy House will enable engineers, manufacturers, designers, architects, contractors and many other sections of the construction industry, the opportunity to rigorously test the effects of different materials, technologies, techniques and ideas in an infinitely controllable environment.
Designed from the outset with in-built flexibility, various elements of the building can be easily replaced and interchanged, providing highly meaningful real life measurements. For instance, the building will be switchable from a traditional central heating system with a hot water tank to a modern condensing boiler system. Other naturally occurring variables such as missing tiles, blocked chimneys and even a build-up of bird droppings on the roof can also be introduced into experiments to examine their impact on overall environmental performance.
One example of this ‘real-life’ research already set to be undertaken is how moss, leaves and other debris in open gutters complicates attempts to introduce cost effective rainwater-harvesting in older homes.
Salford’s ground-breaking domestic energy project is a response to the sustainability challenge presented by our aged, energy inefficient homes. The country’s least efficient properties are predominantly those constructed prior to 1920. These make up 15% of homes in England but account for 23% of total notional C02 emissions.
Further, around 70% of the UK’s existing residential property will still be inhabited in 2050*, including around 2 million two-up, two-down dwellings similar to the one being constructed at Salford.
However, just as the house is designed to be highly flexible in terms of what can be tested, the entire facility has been geared up to allow the University to knock down the terrace and start again by building another style of property for testing. This could be another type of residential property, such as flats or 1960s semis, or elements of commercial/public works such as offices and schools.
Steve Waterworth, the University of Salford’s Energy House Project Manager, said: “Having announced our plans for the Energy House in May, the building is already coming out of ground. We estimate that the structure will be finished by October and we then have a four month programme to fit out both the house and laboratory.
“We aim to be fully operational by the end of January 2011 and will be presenting the first tranche of Energy House data at the UK’s first conference dedicated to the issue of sustainability and retro-fitting, being held at the University, in January.”
Jim Parker, Regional Managing Director at main contractor ISG said: “The technical complexity of recreating a pre-1920’s style terrace property within a reinforced concrete testing chamber, to the exact specifications of that era, is an interesting challenge. We have consulted a number of experts both within the business and externally to ensure that the structure does not incorporate any modern materials or building techniques that might have the impact of skewing the University’s measurements.
“There is a great deal of excitement within ISG at being involved, from the very outset, of a project that could prove so influential in enhancing our understanding of the environmental impact of ageing housing stock. The University of Salford is at the cutting edge of research into energy and the built environment and it is highly likely that the construction industry will directly benefit from research carried out within the Energy House.”
The project has already secured the support of BRE. Oliver Novakovic Director of BRE Housing Futures said: "We are very excited about this project and its implications with regard to the generation of hard data to help deliver the step change needed if the UK is to achieve its carbon emission reduction targets.
“It’s essential that decision makers have sound evidence from projects such as this one, and the Victorian Terrace project at BRE's site in Watford, to ensure products are tested before being tried out in real homes.”
The University of Salford, who have already helped set national standards in insulation, are also hoping that working closely with BRE and other partners will help establish an official standard for sustainable retro-fitting, similar to the BREAM ‘excellent’ and ‘very good’ standards for new builds.
Credits:: Urban Splash's green refurb of a Salford terrace.
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