Energy House 2.0, the design, construction, and commissioning process of a housing testing facility

Fitton, Richard; Roberts, Ben; Henshaw, Grant; Paola Diaz-Hernandez, Heidi; Childs, Andy; Le Hunte, Toby; Zhang, Xinyi; Sitmalidis, Anestis; Swan, Will

Abstract

The global issue of climate change is now readily accepted by most. Buildings contribute 40% of EU emissions, so the need to address mitigation is clear, but changing climate also creates a need for adaptation in buildings. Modelling is an accepted way of estimating the performance of buildings, but issues exist with accuracy and assumptions. This calls for measurements to be made on new build and retrofit homes. However, field measurements can have issues; they are time consuming, expensive, and can also be intrusive. It is for these reasons that the facilities “Salford Energy House” and “Energy House 2.0” were constructed at the University of Salford in the UK. These globally unique facilities allow for full scale homes to be built inside climatic chambers where variables such as temperature, wind, rain, solar radiation, and snow can be replicated, meaning weather conditions experienced by 95% of the worlds populated land mass can be simulated. The chambers are currently home to 5 structures in total; examining future housing systems, refugee and temporary shelters, window treatments and whole house retrofit scenarios. In this paper we will discuss the design, construction, benefits, limitations, and an overview of research findings from these facilities.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: CIBSE IBPSA-England Technical Symposium 2025
• Start Date: Apr 24, 2025
• End Date: Apr 25, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Jan 16, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Apr 30, 2025
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 9, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Additional Information: Currently, full text is only available to conference attendees via private link. However, based on previous years’ practice, the proceedings are expected to become open access on the CIBSE IBPSA-England website later.