Why Education and User Feedback Won’t Close the Performance Gap for University Accommodation

It’s often correctly stated that making buildings work requires an educated and engaged end user. This paper presents results from a study of user feedback in student accommodation. Students that volunteered their energy meter readings used 20% less energy than non-participants. However, this did not change before, during, or after the period of enhanced education and feedback. Furthermore, among those that stated higher awareness of energy issues throughout the study, there were no changes in their energy use habits. While it is no doubt true that education and feedback are useful in addressing the performance gap, this research finds two fundamental challenges to implementing such strategies: 1) most feedback is preaching to the converted, and 2) education does not necessarily correspond to action

Performance gap? energy, health and comfort needs in buildings

Research on performance gap suggests that the actual energy consumption in buildings can be twice as much as expected. Energy models rely on predictive indicators and assumptions that are usually done at design stage, without acknowledging behavioural patterns of actual users. Moreover, in the context of performance gap, it is evident that energy efficiency is overemphasised while other key issues such as health and comfort of occupants, indoor air quality, noise levels etc. have been less stressed and discussed. This paper discusses the performance gap using surveys and physical measurements in a case study building at the University of Cambridge and reports findings of a research workshop with graduate students working on environmental performances of the built environment. The workshop addressed research issues related to energy, comfort and health, used as a method to understand the complexities of and trade-off between different aspects of sustainable buildings. According to the results, it is possible to balance energy, health and comfort needs in building projects. Lessons can be learned from the university’s old and new building projects to inform future research and policies

A deep-narrative analysis of energy cultures in slum rehabilitation housing of Abuja, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro for just policy design

Slum rehabilitation housing (SRH) are critical transitional spaces in urban informality that has deep-rooted implications on poverty alleviation efforts. However, current literature reports systemic injustices in SRH on access to essential services, including energy injustices. This study investigated distributive injustices in the SRH across three cities, Abuja, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro, developing ‘energy cultures’ narratives. It employed a computational social science methodology that used textual analysis, followed by a constructivist grounded theoretic approach to inform just policy design. The analysis was performed at two scales to identify and contrast injustices in the study areas. The result at an aggregated scale showed commonalities were around the poor design of the built environment, administrative lags of the utilities and high electricity bills. Case study-specific results showed that poverty penalties were linked with the energy cultures of each SRHs. In the Mumbai case, poverty penalties were associated with the aspirational purchase of household appliances due to move from slums to SRH. The Abuja case showed low power quality and load shedding frequently damaged appliances that increase the maintenance costs for the occupants. The Rio de Janeiro SRH case had injustices embedded through the adoption of inefficient appliances received as charity from higher-income households. Fuel stacking was also observed in the SRH that illustrated cultural identities associated with cooking energy. The conclusion was drawn to support just policy design by considering the socio-cultural context of the built environment, improving utility governance and promoting cleaner fuel mix at the household level

Words against injustices: a deep narrative analysis of energy cultures in poverty of Abuja, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro

Slum rehabilitation housing (SRH) are critical transitional spaces in urban informality that has deep-rooted implications on poverty alleviation efforts. However, current literature reports systemic injustices in SRH on access to essential services, including energy injustices. This study investigated distributive injustices in the SRH across three cities, Abuja, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro, developing ‘energy cultures’ narratives. It employed a computational social science methodology that used textual analysis, followed by a constructivist grounded theoretic approach to inform just policy design. The analysis was performed at two scales to identify and contrast injustices in the study areas. The result at an aggregated scale showed commonalities were around the poor design of the built environment, administrative lags of the utilities and high electricity bills. Case study-specific results showed that poverty penalties were linked with the energy cultures of each SRHs. In the Mumbai case, poverty penalties were associated with the aspirational purchase of household appliances due to move from slums to SRH. The Abuja case showed low power quality and load shedding frequently damaged appliances that increase the maintenance costs for the occupants. The Rio de Janeiro SRH case had injustices embedded through the adoption of inefficient appliances received as charity from higher-income households. Fuel stacking was also observed in the SRH that illustrated cultural identities associated with cooking energy. The conclusion was drawn to support just policy design by considering the socio-cultural context of the built environment, improving utility governance and promoting cleaner fuel mix at the household level.Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under the grant number [OPP1144

Refurbishment of public housing villas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE): energy and economic impact

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. This study aims at assessing the technical and economic benefits of refurbishing existing public housing villas in the UAE. Four representative federal public housing villas built between 1980s and 2010s were modeled and analyzed. The Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment (IES-VE) energy modeling software was used to estimate the energy consumption and savings due to different refurbishment configurations applied to the villas. The refurbishment technical configurations were based on the UAE’s Estidama green buildings sustainability assessment system. The refurbishment configurations include upgrading three elements: the wall and roof insulation as well as replacing the glazing. The annual electricity savings results indicated that the most cost-efficient refurbishment strategy is upgrading of wall insulation (savings up to 20.8 %) followed by upgrading the roof’s insulation (savings up to 11.6 %) and lastly replacing the glazing (savings up to 3.2 %). When all three elements were refurbished simultaneously, savings up to 36.7 % were achieved (villa model 670). The savings translated to CO2 emission reduction of 22.6 t/year. The simple and discounted payback periods for the different configurations tested ranged between 8 and 28 and 10 and 50 years, respectively

Maslow in the Mud: Contrast between qualitative and quantitative assessment of thermal performance in historic buildings.

This paper argues that the notion of comfort is first and foremost re-lated to subjective choices and individual value systems. The article presents re-sults from research on the perception and measurements of the thermal qualities of heritage buildings in Lincolnshire, UK. The qualitative and quantitative re-sults identified a strong contrast between different methodologies. Inhabitants describe as comfortable houses which would not be considered comfortable if a standard positivist approach was used. The conflict presented will be dis-cussed in the context of sustainable strategies in architecture

Innovation, low energy buildings and intermediaries in Europe: systematic case study review

As buildings throughout their lifecycle account for circa 40% of total energy use in Europe, reducing energy use of the building stock is a key task. This task is, however, complicated by a range of factors, including slow renewal and renovation rates of buildings, multiple non- coordinated actors, conservative building practices, and limited competence to innovate. Drawing from academic literature published during 2005-2015, this article carries out a systematic review of case studies on low energy innovations in the European residential building sector, analysing their drivers. Specific attention is paid to intermediary actors in facilitating innovation processes and creating new opportunities. The study finds that qualitative case study literature on low energy building innovation has been limited, particularly regarding the existing building stock. Environmental concerns, EU, national and local policies have been the key drivers; financial, knowledge and social sustainability and equity drivers have been of modest importance; while design, health and comfort, and market drivers have played a minor role. Intermediary organisations and individuals have been important through five processes: (1) facilitating individual building projects, (2) creating niche markets, (3) implementing new practices in social housing stock, (4) supporting new business model creation, and (5) facilitating building use post construction. The intermediaries have included both public and private actors, while local authority agents have acted as intermediaries in several cases