Investigating the potential of adding thermal mass to mitigate overheating in a super-insulated low-energy timber house

Evidence suggests that many UK dwellings are subjected to overheating or will be at some point in the future. Dwellings built using modern methods of construction may have a higher overheating risk due to the low levels of thermal mass associated with most of these methods. The Nottingham HOUSE, a prefabricated timber modular building designed to zero-carbon and Passivhaus standards, was examined in terms of overheating occurrence. The ability of a high-density fibreboard and phase change materials to provide additional levels of thermal mass was examined with the results suggesting that these can help regulate internal temperatures with the benefit of being easy to integrate

A field study of indoor air quality and overheating in newly built primary classrooms in low-carbon UK schools

School buildings confront complex design and layout problems due to needing to respond to a wide range of environmental factors while accommodating intermittent high-density occupancy. Despite current policy-driven emphases on improving building energy efficiency, focusing exclusively on energy issues fails to capture the full effect buildings have on their occupants and the environment. This paper investigates recently constructed low-carbon schools in the UK, examining indoor environmental quality and assessing overheating assessment against established standards. The findings reveal that carbon dioxide concentrations exceeded the maximum threshold (1,000 ppm) for more than 60% of school hours during both heating and non-heating seasons and that particulate matter levels exceeded 20 g/m3 during the heating season and 10 g/m3 during the non-heating season, indicating annual individual exposure above recommended health guidelines. Furthermore, the classrooms monitored experienced overheating for more than 40% of the school day.publishedVersio

Enabling Private Investment in Affordable Housing in Nigeria: Lessons from the Experience of the Millard Fuller Foundation Projects in Nasarawa State

Despite the shift to private sector-driven affordable housing in Nigeria for decades, the housing deficit has continued to increase to the disadvantage of low-income families. This paper explores the enabling strategies for stimulating private-driven affordable housing in Nigeria. A case study of the Millard Fuller Foundation projects was undertaken, and semi-structured interviews were administered to 12 residents of the estates and the developer to explore their experience and highlight the considerations for designing appropriate strategies. The data generated were analysed using thematic analysis with the support of Nvivo. This study identifies four major components of construction costs—land, design, materials, and finance—that policy improvement can target to stimulate private investment. It shows that developers are likely to adopt practices that will reduce these costs with repercussions for end-users. Mindful of this, and the concern to make returns on investment, strategies should aim to harmonise both developers’ interest and that of the end-users through widespread infrastructural development to make land available in all locations, and an incremental owner-building approach so that end-users can take decisions for their housing. Furthermore, access to National Housing Fund (NHF) mortgages should be enhanced by recognising supplementary incomes in the loan origination procedures

Theoretical and experimental thermal performance assessment of an innovative external wall insulation system for social housing retrofit

© 2017 The UK building stock, being amongst the oldest in the developed world, is also one of the least energy efficient and accounts for approximately 45% of UK carbon emission. Energy use from housing alone was responsible for 13% of total UK carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in 2015. Therefore, achieving the national target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 against 1990 baseline conditions is highly dependent on the reduction of energy consumption in dwellings. The complexity of the problem of retro-fitting energy saving measures in the extensive and diverse aging housing stock is further compounded due to the number of ‘hard to treat’ properties that comprise over 40% of homes in the UK. In this article, the authors present an evaluation of the theoretical and experimental performances of a novel prototype external wall insulation system, developed to improve energy efficiency in ‘hard to treat’ housing. The system was designed to be primarily used to retrofit social housing, which comprises up to 18% of the current UK housing stock. A thorough testing regime was undertaken to test the suitability and effectiveness of the new product in the most common social housing construction typologies. This included: an investigation of the theoretical thermal performance of the prototype product through steady state modelling, a laboratory based prototype test, an analysis of empirical data collected from a cross section of social housing properties in Nottinghamshire, UK used to inform whole house dynamic modelling, and the development of dynamic simulations to assess the energy and carbon reduction impacts of the new product. The theoretical modelling suggested that the integration of the system resulted in thermal performance improvements for all construction types with space heating demand reduced by up to 42%. The results of the whole house dynamic modelling assessment also suggested that the addition of the system resulted in a reduction of heating energy demand of up to 49%. The prototyping testing shown that the system is easy to install requirement minimum building skills. The findings suggest that the new product not only meets the performance of existing external wall insulation systems, but also provides unique selling points with respect to easy installation and non-reliance on weather conditions. The project finished with a pilot study when one house was retrofitted using the novel product

Vernacular passive design in Myanmar housing for thermal comfort

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Tropical weather is characterized by high humidity, high temperature, and intense solar insolation; therefore, traditional tropical housing is predominantly dependent on natural ventilation and passive cooling for thermal comfort. In the literature and practice, however, there is a gap of knowledge on Myanmar vernacular housing, specifically with regard to the variation in weather caused by climate change. In this paper, the authors review passive design techniques used in Myanmar vernacular houses to achieve thermal comfort. Using an experimental design approach, simulation studies were carried out to compare the impact of various passive design techniques on thermal comfort in three Myanmar climates. Different passive design techniques used in the two houses were further reviewed. Fifteen models were generated through an evaluation of the latter to examine the thermal performance of Myanmar housing throughout a year, with typical weather and predicted future climate scenarios. The results revealed that the efficacy of traditional passive design techniques would not be sufficient to achieve thermal comfort in the predicted future climate scenario. For this reason, the authors suggested that the passive design techniques of Myanmar vernacular housing need to be improved, with innovative solutions in order to cope with the changing climate

The vulnerability of homes to overheating in Myanmar today and in the future: A heat index analysis of measured and simulated data

© 2020 The integration of vernacular strategies in Myanmar housing seems to have remained remarkably resilient and is still the norm even in modern dwellings. However, no regard is given to the possible impact of climate change. Using one-year monitored indoor and outdoor thermal environment data, typical and a morphed weather data representing future climate change scenarios, the authors investigated whether modern dwellings in Myanmar can provide thermal comfort in the present and future, and measured how vulnerable to overheating risks they are. Building envelope materials based on typical construction found locally and window shading were varied in the simulations, in order to understand their role in the resultant building performance. The analysis showed that the number of hours above 30 °C in 2019 doubled when compared to a typical weather year. This study contributes valuable insights into how the combined effect of air temperature and humidity will affect building thermal performance in future climate scenarios. Temperature readings reaching the 'danger' heat index threshold were 14.06% of the time in 2019 and only 5.49% in the typical weather year. This indicated that modern dwellings in Myanmar are facing two challenges: high vulnerability to extreme heatwave events, and inadequate response to increased mean air temperatures

Thermal performance in single-zone occupied space ancient Myanmar multistage roof buildings

© 2019 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. Multistage roofs are dominant features in the ancient Myanmar buildings. They describe the cultural context, social status and are a response to the local climates. However, little is known about the thermal performance of multistage roof buildings. The authors believe that this is the first study to access the thermal performance of multistage roof buildings taking into account their typologies, ventilation modes and roof materials. The findings revealed that the three-stage roof buildings received a shorter duration of a year for thermal discomfort compared to the single gable roof buildings. However, there were insignificant improvements in annual mean air temperature by using three-stage roofs. On the other hand, the roof space of three-stage roof buildings received a very high indoor air temperature that caused abandon roof spaces apart from acting as a response to the local climate contexts. The study highlights that the beautiful use of Le-baw allows adding the gable vents easily for better ventilation performance. The results from this study substantiate the findings of another computational fluid dynamic simulation and support the conclusion with a discussion that the three-stage roof buildings have more potential to improve a better thermal performance if they have gable vents

INOVAÇÃO E DESAFIOS DA ERA DIGITAL NO SISTEMA JURÍDICO BRASILEIRO

O estudo aborda a adaptação do sistema jurídico no Brasil, quanto às inovações tecnológicas ocorridas nos últimos tempos, e a urgência de adequação por parte dos operadores de Direito.  Nesse contexto, um dos aspectos que tem proporcionado oportunidades, é o uso da Inteligência Artificial, que vem ganhando espaço em variados âmbitos da sociedade. O sistema Jurídico por sua vez, busca corresponder as novas demandas por meio de Algoritmos, afim de acompanhar esta realidade, que se modifica constantemente num compasso acelerado.  Por outro lado, a educação jurídica digital mostra-se profícua, para realização de propostas inovadoras, e superação de desafios que ocorrem no mundo informacional

Planning Perspectives on Rural Connected, Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Implementation

Connected, autonomous and electric vehicles (CAEV) are a powerful combined transport technology looking to disrupt the automotive sector and drive the transition to safe, accessible, clean and sustainable transport systems. The trialling of private, public and shared CAEV technologies is occurring in cities around the world; however, historically isolated and transport-poor rural communities may have the most to gain from CAEV implementation. Despite the accessibility and transport safety needs of rural communities, rural CAEV trials are few in the UK. Therefore, this paper investigates the hypothesis that the lack of rural implementation research and trials means that rural transport planners are ill-informed and uncertain of both the potential of CAEVs and their implementation requirements to meet rural community transport needs. This investigation consists of consultations with UK-based transport planning professionals to establish their perspectives on CAEV technologies and their rural implementation potential. The findings show that 96% of transport planners lack sufficient understanding of CAEV technology and its implementation challenges. However, the findings also highlight a willingness, given the opportunity, for transport planners to engage with CAEV technologies and apply them to specifically rural scenarios

A Rural Transport Implementation Index for Connected, Autonomous and Electric Vehicles

With connected, autonomous and electric vehicles (CAEV) developing rapidly, there is a need to better support their implementation into rural scenarios, where there are numerous transport challenges. The potential safety, efficiency and sustainability benefits of CAEVs could provide significant value for rural communities if implemented correctly. However, transport planner knowledge of CAEVs and their digital and physical infrastructure requirements in the UK is limited and, despite interest, there is little time or resources available to effectively explore rural CAEV implementation potential. This paper therefore describes the methodology behind, and development of, the CAEV Rural Transport Index (CARTI), based on existing literature and a combination of existing and developed indicators. The CARTI’s purpose is to identify the levels of need, capacity and overall potential of different rural areas to support rural CAEV implementation. Application of the CARTI to several case study areas reveals a range of benefits, reviewed through workshops with local transport professionals. Ultimately, the CARTI is identified as a much-needed tool to support the implementation of CAEVs in rural areas, with potential for further development to establish it as a successful and long-term planning tool