publications
The UK's Green Deal: a modelled case study impact review
Proceedings of the eceee Summer Study 2013, Hyères, France, 3 – 8 June 2013.
Authors: Vicky Ingram, D.P. Jenkins
The UK Government’s most recent policy to combat rising carbon emissions is the Green Deal: aiming to reduce emissions from the existing building stock by providing loans to homeowners for energy efficiency improvements. The cost of the loan is paid back through electricity bills, and is related to the savings predicted for the chosen measure(s). The loan stays with the home, rather than the owner, so measures with a long payback are not prohibited providing they comply with the ‘Golden Rule’: payback must be less than the modelled savings. The savings are calculated using the Reduced data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP), the accredited tool for Green Deal assessments and Energy Performance Certificate calculations. While an updated version of the RdSAP tool will be used for Green Deal calculations (using occupancy-related “in-use” factors to adjust estimated bill savings), there are still serious concerns around the ability of such a method to predict savings with enough accuracy to approximate regular monthly loan repayments that are less than real savings.
This paper applies Green Deal assessments to a number of case study dwellings that each has unique challenges to overcome in an effort to improve their energy performance. These challenges include the presence of solid walls and listed building status (restricting what work can be undertaken), though some case studies will be less hard-to-treat. The sensitivity of the calculation method is investigated to gain further understanding into the likely impact of the policy, and the validity of using the RdSAP method to estimate the savings will be assessed. Additionally, based on the findings, the problem of making the scheme attractive to both householder and loan provider will be discussed.
Methods for assessing domestic overheating for future building regulation compliance
Energy Policy
February 18, 2013
Authors: Vicky Ingram, David P Jenkins, Sophie Simpson, Sandhya Patidar.
Due to both changing building design and projected climate change, the conditions within dwellings in the UK are likely to show increased risk to overheating. There is therefore a growing requirement for a suitable industry standard to assess overheating risk in the domestic sector, ensuring that both new dwellings and refurbishments to existing dwellings take future climate into account. This study compares the type of advice gained and the form of calculation used for a series of different summertime overheating analyses. Using simple overheating definitions, a case-study dwelling is simulated for two UK locations across different climate scenarios and the consistency in advice provided by the chosen methods is discussed. The results suggest there are issues around the consistency of such varied models, but also highlight the need to strike a balance between a method that reliably accounts for building thermal performance while also providing a clear and useable approach that can be adopted within industry practice.
Modelling carbon emissions of UK dwellings – The Tarbase Domestic Model
Applied Energy / Elsevier
January 20, 2012
Authors: Vicky Ingram, D.P. Jenkins, A.D. Peacock, P.F.G. Banfill, D. Kane, R. Kilpatrick.
As part of the Tarbase project, the Tarbase Domestic Model was developed to assess the energy performance of dwellings and options for carbon-saving refurbishments. While subject to the usual limits of steady-state building models, the Tarbase model allows the estimation to be tailored to a specific dwelling, with climate and internal activity accounted for. A wider discussion of steady-state models is given, and the application of the Tarbase model to a real case-study of 100 homes is described. The use of such models can be a valuable, and convenient, way of quantifying the approximate performance of a range of individual dwellings, leading the user to solutions for carbon-saving improvements. However, allowing the model to capture the variation in building specification is of great importance, as is the philosophy of seeing the building as being a product of location, construction and activity/operation.
Modelling tools to assess CO2 in dwellings
Scottish Construction Centre
October 20, 2010 Authors: Vicky Ingram, Prof. Phil Banfill, Dr. Craig Kennedy
This information paper is intended for anyone with an interest in measuring and calculating carbon performance of dwellings. It is an overview of the current method used to assess the energy performance of dwellings in Scotland, the benefits and shortfalls, and the potential improvements that could be made to the methods and systems in place. This paper is no longer available through Construction Scotland after departmental shuffling, but the pdf is available here.
Proceedings of the eceee Summer Study 2013, Hyères, France, 3 – 8 June 2013.
Authors: Vicky Ingram, D.P. Jenkins
The UK Government’s most recent policy to combat rising carbon emissions is the Green Deal: aiming to reduce emissions from the existing building stock by providing loans to homeowners for energy efficiency improvements. The cost of the loan is paid back through electricity bills, and is related to the savings predicted for the chosen measure(s). The loan stays with the home, rather than the owner, so measures with a long payback are not prohibited providing they comply with the ‘Golden Rule’: payback must be less than the modelled savings. The savings are calculated using the Reduced data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP), the accredited tool for Green Deal assessments and Energy Performance Certificate calculations. While an updated version of the RdSAP tool will be used for Green Deal calculations (using occupancy-related “in-use” factors to adjust estimated bill savings), there are still serious concerns around the ability of such a method to predict savings with enough accuracy to approximate regular monthly loan repayments that are less than real savings.
This paper applies Green Deal assessments to a number of case study dwellings that each has unique challenges to overcome in an effort to improve their energy performance. These challenges include the presence of solid walls and listed building status (restricting what work can be undertaken), though some case studies will be less hard-to-treat. The sensitivity of the calculation method is investigated to gain further understanding into the likely impact of the policy, and the validity of using the RdSAP method to estimate the savings will be assessed. Additionally, based on the findings, the problem of making the scheme attractive to both householder and loan provider will be discussed.
Methods for assessing domestic overheating for future building regulation compliance
Energy Policy
February 18, 2013
Authors: Vicky Ingram, David P Jenkins, Sophie Simpson, Sandhya Patidar.
Due to both changing building design and projected climate change, the conditions within dwellings in the UK are likely to show increased risk to overheating. There is therefore a growing requirement for a suitable industry standard to assess overheating risk in the domestic sector, ensuring that both new dwellings and refurbishments to existing dwellings take future climate into account. This study compares the type of advice gained and the form of calculation used for a series of different summertime overheating analyses. Using simple overheating definitions, a case-study dwelling is simulated for two UK locations across different climate scenarios and the consistency in advice provided by the chosen methods is discussed. The results suggest there are issues around the consistency of such varied models, but also highlight the need to strike a balance between a method that reliably accounts for building thermal performance while also providing a clear and useable approach that can be adopted within industry practice.
Modelling carbon emissions of UK dwellings – The Tarbase Domestic Model
Applied Energy / Elsevier
January 20, 2012
Authors: Vicky Ingram, D.P. Jenkins, A.D. Peacock, P.F.G. Banfill, D. Kane, R. Kilpatrick.
As part of the Tarbase project, the Tarbase Domestic Model was developed to assess the energy performance of dwellings and options for carbon-saving refurbishments. While subject to the usual limits of steady-state building models, the Tarbase model allows the estimation to be tailored to a specific dwelling, with climate and internal activity accounted for. A wider discussion of steady-state models is given, and the application of the Tarbase model to a real case-study of 100 homes is described. The use of such models can be a valuable, and convenient, way of quantifying the approximate performance of a range of individual dwellings, leading the user to solutions for carbon-saving improvements. However, allowing the model to capture the variation in building specification is of great importance, as is the philosophy of seeing the building as being a product of location, construction and activity/operation.
Modelling tools to assess CO2 in dwellings
Scottish Construction Centre
October 20, 2010 Authors: Vicky Ingram, Prof. Phil Banfill, Dr. Craig Kennedy
This information paper is intended for anyone with an interest in measuring and calculating carbon performance of dwellings. It is an overview of the current method used to assess the energy performance of dwellings in Scotland, the benefits and shortfalls, and the potential improvements that could be made to the methods and systems in place. This paper is no longer available through Construction Scotland after departmental shuffling, but the pdf is available here.
conferences
Vitae International Researcher Development Conference
Annual conference, attended 2015 and 2016 (Manchester) and 2017 (Birmingham), UK.
ESOF
European OpenScience Forum, Manchester, UK, July 23-27, 2016
WSEDnext
World Sustainable Energy Days, Wels, Austria, Feb 28 - Mar 1, 2013
BEhavE
Energy Efficiency & Behaviour, Helsinki, Finland, Sept 20-21, 2012
WREC
World Renewable Energy Congress, Linköping, Sweden, May 8-13, 2011
Annual conference, attended 2015 and 2016 (Manchester) and 2017 (Birmingham), UK.
ESOF
European OpenScience Forum, Manchester, UK, July 23-27, 2016
WSEDnext
World Sustainable Energy Days, Wels, Austria, Feb 28 - Mar 1, 2013
BEhavE
Energy Efficiency & Behaviour, Helsinki, Finland, Sept 20-21, 2012
WREC
World Renewable Energy Congress, Linköping, Sweden, May 8-13, 2011