Congratulations to all our Building Performance Award Winners for 2023
Sponsor: Ideal Heating Commercial
Stephen Hill, Associate Director in the Buildings Sustainability Team - Arup
Infectious enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge have earned Arup’s Stephen Hill the title of Engineer of the Year at the BPA Awards.
The judges said they could have continued the conversation with him all afternoon, and that winning this award will give Stephen a broader platform from which to deliver his message.
During his 25-year career with Arup, Stephen has been a mechanical services designer, a building performance consultant and, more recently, an associate carbon and net zero consultant, and Nabers UK Independent Design Reviewer.
His current role is focused on driving the transformational change required to achieve net zero carbon across Arup and the industry. He is leading on carbon strategy and operational performance for several of Arup's major projects, including: 19-35 Baker Street, with Derwent; the ITV Studios redevelopment, with Mitsubishi Estates; and 18 Blackfriars, with Hines and Lipton Rogers.
Stephen is also helping deliver organisational change. He has led Arup’s work with The Crown Estate for the past 10 years – transforming its approach to carbon across developments and operations – and has developed and implemented carbon and sustainability frameworks for Stanhope, Transport for London, Argent-Related, M&G, and CO-RE, among others.
Beyond Arup, Stephen has been involved in the recent draft update to the British Council for Offices’ Guide to Key Criteria, as well as research, coordinated by Derwent London, to develop an evidence base for a reduction in key criteria.
In addition, he has contributed to a deeper understanding, across the property sector, of what net zero carbon is and our route to achieving it.
He was lead author of Arup’s Net zero carbon: 3 steps to take now, was on the steering group for the UK Green Building Council’s 2020 publication Net zero carbon – energy performance targets for offices, and is currently coordinating Arup's input to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.
The judges described the breadth of experience and knowledge of the category entrants as ‘outstanding’, adding that they are all natural collaborators who see this approach as essential to solving the challenges of the future.
Sponsor: Lochinvar
Working together to deliver whole house energy system retrofits at scale - Low Carbon Built Environment Team, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
‘An exemplar project, demonstrating true collaboration with multiple stakeholders on a challenging retrofit.’ That was the judging panel’s verdict on Cardiff University’s winning entry, in what was a very strong category.
The Low Carbon Built Environment (LCBE) team at the university’s Welsh School of Architecture collaborated with Wales and West Housing (WWH) to plan, design, procure, install and commission whole-house energy systems for 10 social homes across South and West Wales.
Aimed at reducing energy consumption, fuel bills and carbon emissions, the whole-house energy systems combine reduced energy demand, renewable energy supply, and storage.
Energy-demand reduction measures include insulation, low energy lighting, and ventilation. Photovoltaic solar panels have been installed at all homes and lithium-ion batteries have been used to store energy
The projects are a result of an eight-year collaboration that has enabled an effective feedback loop to be established, where evidence gathered from monitoring or modelling has been used to improve later projects.
Tools developed as part of the collaboration include the practical retrofit early-stage survey, which is used to collate information about each house at the planning stage.
Systems have been designed for a diverse range of homes of all ages, including hard-to-treat solid wall construction and modern cavity wall homes. Each had different occupancy and patterns of use, and were in different levels of maintenance, with different heating systems.
To maximise the performance of the systems, the team ensured that stakeholders were engaged throughout the design and installation stages, from the main contractor to the supply chain and residents. Local supply chains were involved wherever possible, and the projects involved more than 12 suppliers and products.
A brief initial survey was carried out on each of the homes, and a pre-retrofit questionnaire helped to understand residents’ comfort levels and how they used their homes.
Initial monitoring helped the project team to understand how the homes were used and diagnose existing performance issues. Decision-making was supported by a thermal and energy model.
The judges said the project used great data analysis to improve the homes and really benefited from the academic skills of the university.
WWH has provided a deep-retrofit demonstration house that will allow knowledge to be shared with other social housing organisations, local and national government, and the supply chain.
Work to evaluate these innovative systems is continuing, with a vision to replicate them across Wales. The monitoring campaign has continued post-retrofit, where data is used to ensure high-quality commissioning and diagnose any performance gaps.
Retrofitting existing building stock for energy efficiency is one the UK’s most challenging issues, and the learnings from this collaboration will have far-reaching impacts in Wales and beyond, the judges believe.
Sponsor: Airflow
Carbon Intelligence, part of Accenture
Carbon Intelligence was the unanimous choice of winner for the judging panel, which said the company’s programme of client engagement – using its data platform as a collaboration tool – came across very strongly.
Its commitment to gathering in-depth data on existing buildings, highlighting how vital this task is and will continue to be, was also commended by the judges.
The consulting, technology and data business advises corporates and financial institutions on how to navigate sustainability policy and disclosure requirements. It works with clients across real estate, retail, manufacturing, and professional and financial services, using its data platform to communicate with them via direct tagging and automated emails.
The platform helps clients monitor and manage their energy usage, air quality and a range of performance indicators across their portfolios, while its machine-learning capabilities help build performance benchmarks and highlight anomalies or potential problems.
The award judges also praised Carbon Intelligence’s clear equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, and how the firm had reflected on – and responded to – its internal data-gathering exercise.
Its actions to improve diversity have included celebrating Pride Month and supporting the Natural History Museum’s Explorers Conference, which aims to encourage more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to pursue opportunities in environmental sciences.
In addition, Carbon Intelligence runs all its job adverts through a ‘decoder’ to ensure the language is inclusive and gender neutral, and the firm is hoping to take on two candidates through the 10,000 Black Interns scheme.
It champions gender diversity and builds awareness by supporting International Women’s Day, and is committed to providing reasonable adjustments to disabled candidates and employees.
The judges welcomed the considerably more robust responses to questions around equality, diversity and inclusion in the entries to this category, which they said were generally comprehensive.
Sponsor: Gratte Brothers
Savills Portfolio - Smart Managed Solutions
Reinvigorating its facilities management (FM) approach to decarbonisation for Savills Portfolio, using data and technology to drive improvement, has helped make Smart Managed Solutions a BPA winner.
The judges said its entry demonstrated strong collaboration with a software provider to maintain better environments, reduce carbon and provide improved outcomes. The company’s knowledge sharing across all levels of the organisation – through a Smart Academy – was a particular highlight, they added.
Smart Managed Solutions and Savills have worked in partnership for five years, maintaining a property footprint of 3 million ft2. Their decarbonisation journey started with two primary objectives: to reduce energy and maintain better environments for end users. The key was embracing technology and deviating from industry-standard maintenance to a data-led FM solution.
They opted for Sentinll software, set up an in-house analytics team, and invested in an initial implementation of the data platform to evidence real-world savings. For the first four sites, they achieved around 1 million kWh in energy savings per year, reduced plant operational run-time significantly, enhanced occupier comfort, and reduced preventive maintenance costs, as well as occupier reactive calls.
A sustainability champion for each site ensures knowledge is passed to the engineers, while the company’s bespoke e-learning platform, Smart Academy – containing more than 700 CPD-approved courses – is available to all members of staff, including Savills stakeholders.
Savills plans to introduce data-led maintenance to 100 of its sites over the next two years, while Smart aims to rollout this solution to all of its contracts, offering a detailed alternative to every bid in which it participates.
The judges believe that entries to this category proved that ‘data is king’, with some strong use of analytics. They also demonstrated that repair, maintenance and improvement projects can proceed in occupied buildings, and that this is not a significant barrier to reducing carbon emissions in existing stock.
However, for most entries, the judges commented that evidence in the feedback category was not as compelling as it could have been, with a few client testimonials rather than proof of a feedback loop with corrective actions and application of lessons learned.
Arup
Arup’s Maria Benazzo won this award for their significant investment in understanding the embodied carbon of building services and assessing design options with the lowest impact. The judges were also impressed by how Benazzo shares knowledge to drive best practice inside the firm.
Benazzo helped develop an internal Arup methodology to assess embodied carbon for building services that goes beyond the TM65 mid-level calculation by including an estimate for stages A5, B4 and B5. Their calculation spreadsheet enables designers and consultants across the consultancy to quickly and consistently calculate embodied carbon for building services.
Bemazzo also led groundbreaking work on embodied carbon benchmarks for MEP. These show how systems compare in terms of kgCO2e/kW and kgCO2e/m^2 of the building, informing which design will minimise emissions according to building type and shape. This work fed into Zero, the platform Arup developed as part of its COP26 commitment to carry out whole life carbon assessments on all building projects.
In addition, Benazzo has set up a repository on Arup’s intranet to collate information obtained from manufacturers for TM65 forms or Environmental Product Declarations. This not only reduces the amount of time on projects spent reaching out to manufacturers for information, but also helps with understanding equipment emissions, which can be beneficial at early stages, when the manufacturer has yet to be appointed.
To disseminate knowledge about the work that has been done, Benazzo gives presentations to teams across Arup. They are also planning workshops to bring together everyone in the consultancy who assesses embodied carbon to develop a strategy for building services.
The judges noted a wide variety of entries in this category – from calculation methodologies and the development of technical guidance to policy – with applications at project level and company-wide.
There was also a clear inclination to consider the embodied carbon impacts of building services alongside their operational impact. This, the judges added, is really encouraging, as is the willingness of applicants to share data with CIBSE for the betterment of the industry.
Sponsor: Crane Fluid Systems
Cranmer Road, Kings College Cambridge - Max Fordham LLP
Judges loved the continuity of design, delivery and operation of King’s College, Cambridge’s new Passivhaus student blocks.
Max Fordham designed the two sibling student housing blocks built to Passivhaus Classic standard and judges were impressed by the consultant’s focus on optimising building performance.
They highlighted the feedback from the surveys used to further improve energy performance; comprehensive commissioning; and detailed analysis of the impact of a range of future climate scenarios, with results of the analysis influencing design and construction.
The client’s brief was to provide high-quality sustainable student accommodation to satisfy growing demand, and help create a greater sense of community for the college’s graduate students.
The project had a challenging route through planning, both from the sensitive conservation area it’s sited within, and the planners’ concerns about the level of occupancy proposed for the site that was higher than they anticipated.
The buildings are all-electric, with simple ventilation, space heating and domestic hot-water systems. One building is clad in brick and the other in a mixture of brick and pre-cast concrete panels.
Both buildings have a pure raft foundation to minimise thermal bridging, and a partial-fill cavity wall insulation, using mineral wool. They provide a mix of accommodation with some en suite bathrooms.
A simple building user guide was written and shared with every student, so they could understand the background to the building, and how to interact with it to achieve comfort in a low-energy way.
Reviewing the operational energy consumption allowed a sense check to understand if the services and systems were operating as intended and target areas for improvement, with the analysis helping to demonstrate that the building generally aligned with the modelling.
Carrying out an occupant survey allowed both energy use and occupant feedback to be brought together to ensure that very low energy consumption wasn’t being achieved to the detriment of occupant satisfaction and comfort.
Sponsor: Tamlite Lighting
MODULHAUS™ - VOLUMETRIC™
Judges described Volumetric Modulhaus as a ‘stand out’ winner of the Wellbeing award, saying the company’s modular homes designed for rehousing rough sleepers made a significant contribution to the wellbeing element of building performance.
They said: ‘Volumetric Modulhaus combine fabrication and modern methods of construction to provide a sustainable solution for temporary accommodation that is an attractive mix of innovation and societal good.’
Modulhaus are stackable, modular homes that provide rough sleepers with a supported pathway back to independent living.
Volumetric worked in close partnership with Hill Group to design and manufacture bespoke single-person homes, with 200 being gifted via Foundation 200 to homeless charities and councils across the country.
Sustainable technologies allow exceptionally low running costs (around £5 per week), offering councils, local authorities and third-sector organisations a more cost-efficient alternative to repurposing unsuitable pre-existing buildings over the long term.
The robust Modulhaus structures are fabricated from galvanised hot-rolled steel frames to allow interlockable, double-storey stacking.
Nearly 200 former rough sleepers are now living in Modulhaus developments across the UK.
Councillor Neil MacDonald, of Ipswich Borough Council, said the winner was a ‘carefully designed housing solution and a stepping stone to a permanent home for formerly homeless people’.
He said Volumetric Modulhaus homes provided a safe space where people can receive ‘dedicated support that will help them develop the skills they need to get into work and to live independently’.
Mark Allan, chief executive of Jimmy’s Cambridge, a charity supporting homeless in the city, said: ‘These modular homes provide further opportunities to people who are homeless. They provide the support and renewed hope to overcome a very difficult period in their lives.’
iAirDoor - Wirth Research
Judges were fulsome in their praise for the winner iAirDoor. They said the company had reinvented the over-door air curtain, and addressed challenges in a sector where innovation to reduce energy consumption and heat loss is ‘long overdue’.
They praised iAirDoor’s cost-effectiveness, the ease of installation and maintenance, and the remote monitoring and management features that allows the manufacturer to respond quickly to operational issues.
The iAirDoor is a device that significantly reduces wind infiltration through open (or frequently opened) doorways.
Stopping infiltration when outside air differs from desired indoor air temperature results in significant energy savings and a noticeable improvement in thermal comfort indoors – particularly close to the open door.
The iAirDoor is a mechatronic archway that sits behind a building entranceway. It contains an innovative array of sensors to detect airflow in both directions. An electronic control system operates a series of internal variable speed fans to produce the necessary air pressure to exactly counteract airflow through the doorway.
The result is an invisible, active ‘barrier’, preventing unwanted outside air flowing into the building and the seepage of warm air – or cold air, depending on the season – in the other direction. This reduces the load on the building’s HVAC system, which no longer has to work to overcome the air infiltration, while simultaneously improving comfort conditions indoors.
Since its launch in November 2019, and despite pandemic-related market disruption, Wirth Research has sold 40 iAirDoors across multiple major European retailers.
Judges were impressed by the ‘varied and diverse range of entries’ in this category, from thermal environment enclosures to heat interface units and air curtains which, they said, ‘demonstrated innovation is still relevant and appropriate in technology to address climate challenges and comfort’.
Sponsor: CIBSE Patrons
Cloud-Based Smart Energy Management Platform (CBSEMP) - Swire Properties
In a very high-quality category, it was the ambition and scale of Swire Properties’ Cloud-based Smart Energy Management Platform that edged the judges’ decision.
They deemed it ‘exceptional’ that the platform can be applied to so many properties and control building services systems, and declared it the winner after whittling down 26 entries to a shortlist of seven.
Swire Properties develops, owns and operates mixed-use – principally commercial – properties. Its cloud platform is currently connected to 12 buildings in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, with a combined gross floor area of 1.45 million m2, from which it collects, analyses and visualises real-time energy and operational data.
The aim is to reduce the building portfolio’s HVAC energy consumption by up to 10% and enable performance monitoring of individual buildings over time compared with corporate 1.5ºC Science Based Targets.
The platform connects to onsite building management and power metering systems, and provides: a dashboard for data visualisation; customisable graphing for data analysis; customisable reporting that is automatic and immediate; and an AI rule-based expert system that offers operation optimisation suggestions. For example, at one complex, a cooling tower’s heat dissipation to power consumption ratio was found to be low because of non-optimised water balancing. So, the balancing valve was adjusted to increase the ratio and achieve better efficiency and energy saving.
The platform also has machine-learning cooling load prediction, with the previous three months’ actual cooling load data, plus other relevant information, used to train the model. Plans are now under way for machine-learning chiller plant optimisation.
A mobile application is also being developed, as is a workflow order for alerts, so technical staff can follow up and input their actions when completed. To enhance visualisation of the information, a 3D model of the building and system, with real-time data, is being integrated.
Existing buildings and embodied carbon metrics and remediation were prevalent themes in this category, but the judges said the breadth of entries across the digital engineering space was both encouraging and very interesting.
Sponsor: Mitsubishi Electric
XCO2
XCO2 stood head and shoulders above the other finalists in this keenly fought category. Judges said that while all the shortlisted entries showed an incredible focus on net zero carbon it was XCO2’s ‘inciteful and thorough’ entry that convinced the judges that it was best in class.
Describing XCO2 as good example of a small developing practice, judges called the entry clear and complete.
XCO2 is an engineering and environmental consultancy formed in 2008 with offices in London and Singapore. The firm’s primary focus is to eliminate CO2 emissions in the built environment by providing innovative and robust solutions to clients.
The firm offers net zero services on all projects and is willing to share its knowledge by delivering multiple CPDs to architects, housing associations, local authorities and other engineering disciplines.
It has recently worked on five net zero housing estate retrofit projects that will see 500 social homes across London become zero carbon, resulting in dramatically reduced energy bills at a time when fuel poverty is so prevalent.
Working together and building relationships are two of the company’s cultural values and demonstrate the importance of collaboration. The firm has worked with a wide array of stakeholders such as supporting local communities, charities and social enterprises to bring about energy savings and improvements.
XCO2 believes that cross-team bonding and internal communication is key with staff going into work 2-3 days a week, to reflect that.
Its monthly newsletter keeps everyone informed on staff and office news, and social events. The monthly company-wide meetings are an opportunity to bring the London and Singapore offices together to share successes and lessons learnt.
Sponsor: ABB
Cundall
Cundall’s tangible commitment to zero carbon – coupled with its strong ethics and equity – gave it the edge, the judges decided, in what was a highly competitive category.
The firm’s ‘comprehensive’ entry contained ‘strong evidence throughout’, and the judges made particular reference to its global Zero Carbon Design (ZCD2030) pathway, which commits Cundall to achieve zero carbon design on every project by 2030.
The pathway is currently being trialled, but Cundall’s aim is for 25% of its projects to achieve ZCD by 2024, 50% by 2027 and 100% by 2030. To deliver on this, it is upskilling its people in carbon and sustainability literacy.
Cundall’s award entry also showed strong preparation for the Building Safety Act 2022, with its legal and construction, design and management teams working closely to ensure engineers understand and implement the changes. In-house training on the implications of the legislation is being provided, and Cundall’s terms and conditions have been updated.
There was clear evidence in all the entries that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) has risen up company agendas, and Cundall’s equity and ethics were highlighted by the judges.
Its employee-led networks for gender, ethnicity and culture, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and neurodiversity have organised events for LGBTQ History Month and Black History Month, and implemented initiatives such as menopause awareness workshops for leaders and managers and free menstrual products in all office locations.
In addition, the company has launched a 12-month Inclusive Leadership programme for its senior leaders, led STEM engagement sessions with young people through its relationship with the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, and adopted inclusive language in all its business communications.
Cundall is also piloting a pro bono initiative to help schools lower their emissions, targeting net zero carbon.
The judges praised the high quality of the shortlisted entries, which all demonstrated clear evidence of improvements to the buildings occupied by the consultancies. The entrants, they added, are ‘showing industry leadership qualities and actively helping to define future policy and best practice’.
Sponsor: Buro Happold
NorDan UK
The judges recognised a ‘holistic approach to the design of buildings, including envelope elements’ by naming window manufacturer NorDan UK as the winner of this award.
They said the company has clearly considered the whole life impact of its product – from manufacturing, operation and maintenance, to end of life – and praised its award entry for including ‘good-quality data’.
NorDan's products have some of the lowest embodied carbon in the industry because its frames are around 95% timber, and the company uses renewable energy sources and minimises waste.
To achieve U-values as low as 0.65 W/m2K, with air permeability of less than 0.1 m³/h at 50Pa, NorDan relies on the high proportion of timber in its frames. This also makes its embodied carbon figures the best in the industry (around 60kg CO2/m²) – meaning there is no negative impact on operational carbon performance to achieve such low embodied carbon figures.
Sustainability values have been implemented throughout its supply chain. For example, NorDan’s aluminium supplier uses 100% hydroelectricity; 25% of the aluminium it uses is made from recycled content; all of NorDan's manufacturing subsidiaries have 'green' energy suppliers; and, in 2022, there was a 10% reduction in factory CO2 emissions and waste. NorDan's factories are also located close to timber sources to minimise transportation.
Such sustainability has been the driving ethos behind the company since the 1960s, so NorDan understands that Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are key to allowing clients, architects and contractors to make informed decisions based on accurate, third-party accredited data. For this reason, it has detailed and wide-ranging Type III product-specific EPDs.
NorDan is also finalising an embodied carbon calculator that will allow it to publish third-party accredited project-specific EPDs for every project it works on.
Uptake of EPDs by manufacturers, and consideration of the whole life impact of their products, were clear trends among this year’s award entries, which the judges described as ‘good quality’. Product innovation – such as the use of bio-based and fossil fuel-free materials – was also a noteworthy feature.
Sponsor: Crane Fluid Systems
Towards Net Zero - Evidence from six whole house energy retrofits - Low Carbon Built Environment Team, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
Highly Commended
Shepherds Barn - Leap
Sponsor: SfS - Smoke & Fire Safety
Airborne Infection Reduction through Building Operation and Design (AIRBODS) - Loughborough University
Loughborough University won this award for what the judges called an ‘accessible, well-written report, with research that has resulted in usable guidance and tools to help designers identify and mitigate infection-control risk’.
Driven by the pandemic to consider infection risk at large-scale gatherings, Airborne infection reduction through building operation and design (Airbods) involved multidisciplinary research that contributed to government guidance on opening up the country after Covid.
The project team’s participation in the Events Research Programme contributed generally to the resumption of large-scale events. For example, at Wembley Stadium, a problem with ventilation provision was identified in a space because it had high CO2 concentrations. Subsequently, the space was reconfigured to improve ventilation, thereby reducing the risk of long-range transmission of airborne pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.
The analytical risk models developed by Airbods are contained in a risk assessment tool that can identify scenarios and space types that should be targeted for remediation by improving the ventilation system or using air cleaning systems.
It has enabled policy-makers and stakeholders to evaluate the changes in risk that modifications to ventilation rates, occupancy density, and exposure times have at a population scale, so that interventions can be better focused.
Airbods continues to develop computational fluid dynamics tools to assess the role of ventilation on exhaled aerosols in collaboration with experimental work in environmentally controlled chambers.
This category attracted a wide range of entries – from infection control to virtual environment and graduate training programmes – all of which recognised the need to improve skills across the industry to address the critical shortfall. This was welcomed by the judges, who said it is clear that the industry is looking to tackle current challenges, including climate change, fire safety and the operational performance of buildings.
Build Better Now – COP26 Virtual Platform, an immersive experience for COP26, was highly commended by the judges, who said it demonstrates how the virtual environment has a place in designing buildings and infrastructure projects, as well as a learning and development tool.
Highly Commended
Build Better Now' COP26 Virtual Pavilion - AECOM
HVR Zero - Hybrid Ventilation with Heat Recovery - Monodraught
The HVR Zero sets a new benchmark for the future generation of low energy hybrid ventilation systems that integrate heat exchange ventilation strategies.
The new HVR design principles combine strong engineering qualities and premium material use with cost-effectiveness to achieve a decentralised energy-ventilation unit with zero embodied and operational carbon.
Judges praised the level of detail that went into the engineering of the product and said they were pleased that embodied carbon was considered in the product’s development. They said it ‘demonstrates how new products need to address this challenge and target net zero over the product’s lifecycle’.
They said the product provides an interesting challenge to traditional centralised air systems in relation to controllability and efficiency, achieved in part through a well-developed and intuitive user interface.
The HVR range is designed to allow natural ventilation, hybrid mixing ventilation and low-energy mechanical ventilation with heat recovery through selectable, multiple-segregated internal airways.
HVR Zero is equipped with Monodraught’s latest ‘Modena’ touchscreen wall controller, which provides room occupants with full information and overall control of the ventilation system. Incorporating a 4in touchscreen, the controller has calibrated temperature sensors and an air quality CO2 sensor.
The judges said this year’s entries ‘reflected the specialist nature of this field’ and praised the high standard of technical content that demonstrated ‘excellent levels of research and development’.
The award recognises products or innovations that make a significant contribution to the air quality element of building performance – including solutions in the areas of heating, ventilation, cooling and humidification, and products and innovations that treat indoor air.
Sponsor: Tamlite Lighting
Working together to deliver whole house energy system retrofits at scale - Low Carbon Built Environment Team, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
Judges called the 2023 Building Performance Champion ‘an exemplar project, demonstrating true collaboration with multiple stakeholders on a challenging retrofit’.
The Low Carbon Built Environment Team at the Welsh School of Architecture has been collaborating with Wales and West Housing (WWH) for eight years, and has carried out deep retrofits on 10 Welsh homes using whole-house energy systems.
So impressed were the judges by the partnership, which used extensive monitoring and evidence-based data to improve later retrofits, that they named the project best Collaboration.
Whole-house energy systems, aimed at reducing energy consumption, fuel bills and carbon, combined renewables – such as photovoltaics, heat pumps and batteries – with energy-reduction measures, including fabric insulation and low energy lighting.
Systems have been designed for a diverse range of homes of all ages, including hard-to-treat solid wall construction and modern cavity wall homes. Each home had different occupancy and patterns of use, as well as different levels of maintenance and different heating systems.
To maximise the performance of the systems, the team ensured that stakeholders were engaged throughout the design and installation stages, from the main contractor to the supply chain and residents. Local supply chains were involved wherever possible and the projects involved more than 12 suppliers and products.
Tools developed as part of the collaboration include the practical retrofit early-stage survey, which is used to collate information about each house at the planning stage.
Initial monitoring helped the project team to understand how the homes were used and diagnose existing performance issues. Decision-making was supported by a thermal and energy model.
Judges praised how the team responded to the individual needs of each home and its residents. Decision-making was supported by a thermal and energy model.
Work to evaluate these innovative systems is continuing, with a vision to replicate them across Wales. The monitoring campaign has continued post-retrofit, where data is used to ensure high-quality commissioning and diagnose any performance gaps.
The judges said the project used great data analysis to improve the homes and really benefited from the academic skills of the university.
A retrofit demonstration house, built by WWH and based on data and lessons learned from retrofits, is now helping to inspire other social housing providers to improve their housing stock.
Retrofitting existing building stock for energy efficiency is one the UK’s most challenging issues, and the learnings from this collaboration will have far-reaching impacts in Wales and beyond, believed the judges.
Highly Commended
Airborne Infection Reduction through Building Operation and Design (AIRBODS) - Loughborough University