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Comparison of whole house heat loss test methods under controlled conditions in six distinct retrofit scenarios

Alezzo, F; Farmer, D; Fitton, R; Hughes, T; Swan, W

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Authors

F Alezzo

D Farmer

T Hughes



Abstract

The accurate assessment of buildings to assess their performance across a range of parameters is an essential part of understanding both new and retrofit buildings. The growing understanding of the performance gap in terms of its assessment and characterisation relies on effective methods of analysis. Here, we evaluate an experimental whole house method, known as QUB. As with many whole building approaches the method establishes heat loss through transmission and ventilation losses.
This study compares QUB against an alternative, established, whole house test known as coheating. It was applied in a whole house test facility under controlled conditions. The test property, a solid wall pre-1919 UK archetype, was retrofit using a set of commercially available products and then the retrofit was removed in stages. At each of these stages a QUB test, which commonly takes one night, and coheating test, which can take few weeks, were applied. The objective of the study was to provide a comparison between the new method and more established method in terms of accuracy.
The two methods showed close agreement in terms of results, suggesting that the quicker test has great potential as a more practical and economic test. There were higher levels of uncertainty with the QUB method due to shorter measurement periods. The lack of full boundary conditions within the test facility should be considered a limitation in applying the findings directly to the field. However, this study indicates the potential for QUB in validating performance, warranting further investigation.

Citation

Alezzo, F., Farmer, D., Fitton, R., Hughes, T., & Swan, W. (2018). Comparison of whole house heat loss test methods under controlled conditions in six distinct retrofit scenarios. Energy and Buildings, 168, 35-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.03.024

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 6, 2018
Online Publication Date Mar 10, 2018
Publication Date Jun 1, 2018
Deposit Date Mar 16, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 10, 2019
Journal Energy and Buildings
Print ISSN 0378-7788
Publisher Elsevier
Volume 168
Pages 35-41
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.03.024
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.03.024
Related Public URLs https://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy-and-buildings
Additional Information Corporate Creators : Saint Gobain Recherche, Leeds Beckett University, University of Salford

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