Energy use in buildings and design requirements. The energy costs and financial costs of building materials, structures and space heating, the detailed patterns of use of heating systems in dwellings, and their interactions: their implications for design.

Description

The primary energy costs of building materials and structures
are discussed and comparisons are made between typical dwelling
types.
The economics of alternative wall, roof and floor constructions,
providing various levels of insulationy are examined. Costs are
assessed for a number of periods from 1970 to early 1980 for
heating by gas and night rate electricity. The effect of price
changes-on the economic attractiveness of insulation is
investigated and the likely effects of future price rises are
considered. It is concluded that, in certain circumstances,
higher levels of insulation than those normally used in the UK
have been economically attractive for the last few years and may
possibly become more so.
A survey of over fifty local authority houses with central
heating, carried out by the author in Spring 1978, is described.
Three types of houses of similar size were involved, having
gas-fired 'wet' systems, and ducted warm air heating from
electric storage and gas-fired units respectively. The survey
was designed to determine certain aspects of occupant behaviour
relevant to fuel consumption. Using regression techniques,
relationships are obtained which explain more than two thirds of
the variance of mean useful energy input rate between the houses
of a given type in cold weather in terms of hours of use of central
heating window opening habits, and for warm air heating, the
closing of outlet registers. It was also revealed that for the
house types with gas-fired heating the number of hours of use of
the central heating was strongly influenced by household size
and occupancy patterns.
The implications for building design of the effects of occupant
behaviour and of financial and energy costs are discussed.

Links & Downloads

1. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4219

Tags

Energy use

Building design

Energy costs

Contruction

Insulation

Heating costs

Central heating

Additional Fields

Identifer	oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/4219
Date	January 1981
Creators	Sansam, Robert Verdon
Contributors	Mills, G.M.
Publisher	University of Bradford, Postgraduate School of Studies in Science and Society.
Source Sets	Bradford Scholars
Language	English
Detected Language	English
Type	Thesis, doctoral, PhD
Rights	<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.