Abstract
Building designers rely on a plethora of design guidance beyond compulsory building codes or regulations. However, it has been noted that guidance can be conflicting or contradictory. There is also evidence that design teams opt for ‘the safe option’, or that which colleagues have used. This is known to have led to the over-engineering of buildings and systems, potentially leading to unnecessary energy use, in direct conflict with the low carbon agenda. To quantify the potential scale of the impact, we investigated the energy use of commercial swimming pool halls, using the full-range of common design standards. Swimming pools were chosen due to their high-energy demand and because there are many guidance documents available from different sources. We found that different standards (which revolve around temperature, humidity and ventilation rate) produce designs with very different energy consumptions. Furthermore, the optimal ventilation rate (derived from a physics-based approach) was found to be far from values presented in guidance documents. Use of this new rate implies a 90% reduction in energy use, compared to the most conservative guidance, confirmed using measured data. This suggests this is a real issue and the existence of such contradictory guidance runs against the low carbon agenda.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 99-107 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Sustainable Cities and Society |
Volume | 26 |
Early online date | 5 Jun 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 Oct 2016 |
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Profiles
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David Coley
- Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering - Professor
- Centre for Doctoral Training in Decarbonisation of the Built Environment (dCarb)
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Statistical Applied Mathematics (SAMBa)
- Institute for Mathematical Innovation (IMI)
- Centre for Energy and the Design of Environments (EDEn)
Person: Research & Teaching
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Tristan Kershaw
- Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering - Lecturer
- Centre for Energy and the Design of Environments (EDEn)
Person: Research & Teaching