Investigating the impact of renewing floor coverings on the energy performance of dwellings with suspended timber floors, tested under controlled conditions

Marshall, AS; Fitton, R; Benjaber, MAA; Swan, W

Abstract

Dwellings with suspended timber floors are commonplace in the UK, making up almost a third of the overall housing stock. Floor coverings, such as carpets and vinyl, are often used in these types of dwellings to achieve thermal comfort, aesthetics and energy. Over time, due to general wear and tear, the quality and performance of floor coverings can deteriorate. This deterioration affects the overall performance of these coverings as a whole and so it becomes necessary to replace them. Developments in the production of floor coverings and underlay have resulted in the opportunity to replace floor coverings with more robust materials, which can demonstrate improved energy efficiency.
The Energy House at the University of Salford is a full-scale replica of a typical UK home (pre 1920’s Victorian Terrace), contained within a controlled environment. This facility was originally fitted with a synthetic carpet and laminate on top of rubber-based underlay material. After 6 years of heavy use, all floor coverings within the house were replaced with new materials. Tests were conducted throughout the transition from old coverings to new, under steady state conditions; this included measurements of energy consumption, heat flux density, air tightness, and the global heat transfer coefficient.
The original floor coverings were found to improve the overall energy consumption by 2.7%, heat flux through the floor by 16.9%, air tightness by 3.3% and the global heat transfer coefficient by 3.0%.
By replacing the original coverings with new materials, the improvement to the overall energy consumption rose to 4.8%, heat flux rose to 27.1%, air tightness to 6.0% and the global heat transfer coefficient by 5.0%. Thus, it can be demonstrated that by replacing old floor coverings for this building type, the energy performance of those coverings can be almost doubled.

Citation

Marshall, A., Fitton, R., Benjaber, M., & Swan, W. (2018, September). Investigating the impact of renewing floor coverings on the energy performance of dwellings with suspended timber floors, tested under controlled conditions. Presented at International Conference for Sustainable Design of the Built Environment SDBE, London

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: International Conference for Sustainable Design of the Built Environment SDBE
• Conference Location: London
• Start Date: Sep 12, 2018
• End Date: Sep 13, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 13, 2018
• Publication Date: Sep 13, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 26, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 26, 2018
• Publisher URL: http://newton-sdbe.uk/conferences/sdbe-2018/
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Conference proceedings published with ISBN 9781999797195, edited by Heba Elsharkawy, Sahar Zahiri and Jack Clough; Event Type : Conference