Demonstrating thermal performance: The role and challenges of testing methodologies

Ray Williams

Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal & Valuation, 2015, vol. 4, issue 2, 110-118

Abstract: The UK's commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 presents the construction industry with an extremely difficult challenge. To produce the highly energy-efficient new buildings and adequately retrofit the 20 million existing ones we must start to use all the tools at our disposal. Worryingly, it is now apparent that a significant gap between the as-designed thermal performance of buildings and the actual performance already exists. This paper puts forward the case that a significant contributor to that gap is the regulatory regime that has been put in place, which allows the U-values of all the building components and structures to be calculated — never verified by measurement. A list of the main measurement and calculation standards that are available is then given with a brief description of their possible place in a rigorous system for ensuring that building designs are based on accurate, validated thermal performance values for the structures from which the energy performance is calculated.

Keywords: building energy; performance gap; thermal performance measurement; measurement standards for building materials and structures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aza:jbsav0:y:2015:v:4:i:2:p:110-118

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