Achieving carbon reduction from listed buildings in the UK: A case study on The Royal Academy of Engineering, London

A carbon reduction strategy for a historic Grade 1 listed office building in London is presented. The study evaluates the impact of49 different carbon abatement options, quantified using building simulation software, auditing procedures and qualitative methods. The impact of each option is assessed against three criteria: carbon abatement potential, practicality and cost. The strategy comprises of18interventions,integrated within 12 key recommendations. Accumulative reduction of 37% (below a 2009 carbon emissions baseline)appears achievable and only feasible with heavy reliance on changes in occupant behaviour. This theme appears central in achieving realistic and significant carbon savings from listed buildings, where planning constraints relinquish potential for major building fabric alteration and renewable energy installations.

Field study on thermal comfort and adaptive strategies in residential buildings in China

This paper fully describes a nation-wide field study on building thermal environment and thermal comfort of occupant, which was carried out in summer 2005 and in winter 2006 respectively in China, illustrating the adaptive strategies adopted by occupants in domestic buildings in China. According to the climate division in China, the buildings in Beijing (BJ), Shanghai (SH), Wuhan (WH) and Chongqing (CQ), Guangzhou (GZ), Kunming (KM), were selected as targets which are corresponding to cold zone, hot summer and cold winter zone (SWC-SH, WH, CQ), hot summer and warm winter zone and temperate zone, respectively. The methodology used in the field study is the combination of subjective questionnaire regarding thermal sensation and adaptive approaches and physical environmental monitoring including indoor air temperature and relative humidity. A total of 1671 subjects participate in this investigation with more than 80% response rate in all surveyed cities. Both physiological and non-physiological factors (behavioural and psychological adaptations) have been analysed.

An integrated dynamic whole life costing analysis for air distribution systems

Air distribution systems are one of the major electrical energy consumers in air-conditioned commercial buildings which maintain comfortable indoor thermal environment and air quality by supplying specified amounts of treated air into different zones. The sizes of air distribution lines affect energy efficiency of the distribution systems. Equal friction and static regain are two well-known approaches for sizing the air distribution lines. Concerns to life cycle cost of the air distribution systems, T and IPS methods have been developed. Hitherto, all these methods are based on static design conditions. Therefore, dynamic performance of the system has not been yet addressed; whereas, the air distribution systems are mostly performed in dynamic rather than static conditions. Besides, none of the existing methods consider any aspects of thermal comfort and environmental impacts. This study attempts to investigate the existing methods for sizing of the air distribution systems and proposes a dynamic approach for size optimisation of the air distribution lines by taking into account optimisation criteria such as economic aspects, environmental impacts and technical performance. These criteria have been respectively addressed through whole life costing analysis, life cycle assessment and deviation from set-point temperature of different zones. Integration of these criteria into the TRNSYS software produces a novel dynamic optimisation approach for duct sizing. Due to the integration of different criteria into a well- known performance evaluation software, this approach could be easily adopted by designers in busy nature of design. Comparison of this integrated approach with the existing methods reveals that under the defined criteria, system performance is improved up to 15% compared to the existing methods. This approach is interpreted as a significant step forward reaching to the net zero emission building in future.

Designer buildings: an evaluation of the price impacts of signature architects

This study investigates whether commercial offices designed by signature architects in the United States achieve rental premiums compared to commercial offices designed by nonsignature architects. Focusing on buildings designed by winners of the Prizker Prize and the Gold Medal awarded by the American Institute of Architects, we create a sample of commercial office buildings designed by signature architects drawing on CoStar's national database. We use a combination of hedonic regression model and a logit model to estimate the various rent determinants. While the first stage measures the typical rental price differential above the typical building in a particular sub-market over a specific timeframe, the second stage identifies a potential price differential over a set of buildings closely matched on important characteristics (such as age, size, location etc.). We find that in both stages offices design by signature architects exhibit a premium. However these results are preliminary. The premium could be indeed an effect of the name of the architect, but others factors such as micro-market conditions might be the cause. Further tests are needed to confirm the validity of our results.

Green noise or green value? Measuring the price effects of environmental certification in commercial buildings

This paper investigates the price effects of environmental certification on commercial real estate assets. It is argued that there are likely to be three main drivers of price differences between certified and non-certified buildings. First, certified buildings offer a bundle of benefits to occupiers relating to business productivity, image and occupancy costs. Second, due to these occupier benefits, certified buildings can result in higher rents and lower holding costs for investors. Third, certified buildings may require a lower risk premium. Drawing upon the CoStar database of US commercial real estate assets, hedonic regression analysis is used to measure the effect of certification on both rent and price. We first estimate the rental regression for a sample of 110 LEED and 433 Energy Star as well as several thousand benchmark buildings to compare the sample to. The results suggest that, compared to buildings in the same metropolitan region, certified buildings have a rental premium and that the more highly rated that buildings are in terms of their environmental impact, the greater the rental premium. Furthermore, based on a sample of transaction prices for 292 Energy Star and 30 LEED-certified buildings, we find price premia of 10% and 31% respectively compared to non-certified buildings in the same metropolitan area

The causes and effects of depreciation in office buildings: a ten year update

This paper publishes the results of the 1996 study, which repeats a cross-section analysis of around 125 City of London office buildings, and examines the longitudinal data contributed by a sample of 56 unrefurbished properties common to the 1986 and 1996 City of London datasets. An estimate of the average rate of rental and capital value depreciation is made; the effect of age is shown not to be straight-line; and the causes if depreciation are measured. The results are compared with the 1986 City of London findings.

Beyond the technical: a snapshot of energy and buildings research

The past decade has witnessed a sharp increase in published research on energy and buildings. This paper takes stock of work in this area, with a particular focus on construction research and the analysis of non-technical dimensions. While there is widespread recognition as to the importance of non-technical dimensions, research tends to be limited to individualistic studies of occupants and occupant behavior. In contrast, publications in the mainstream social science literature display a broader range of interests, including policy developments, structural constraints on the diffusion and use of new technologies and the construction process itself. The growing interest of more generalist scholars in energy and buildings provides an opportunity for construction research to engage a wider audience. This would enrich the current research agenda, helping to address unanswered problems concerning the relatively weak impact of policy mechanisms and new technologies and the seeming recalcitrance of occupants. It would also help to promote the academic status of construction research as a field. This, in turn, depends on greater engagement with interpretivist types of analysis and theory building, thereby challenging deeply ingrained views on the nature and role of academic research in construction.

The evolution of electricity demand and the role for demand side participation, in buildings and transport

This paper explores the possible evolution of UK electricity demand as we move along three potential transition pathways to a low carbon economy in 2050.The shift away from fossil fuels through the electrification of demand is discussed, particularly through the uptake of heat pumps and electric vehicles in the domestic and passenger transport sectors. Developments in the way people and institutions may use energy along each of the pathways are also considered and provide a rationale for the quantification of future annual electricity demands in various broad sectors. The paper then presents detailed modelling of hourly balancing of these demands in the context of potential low carbon generation mixes associated with the three pathways. In all cases, hourly balancing is shown to be a significant challenge. To minimise the need for conventional generation to operate with very low capacity factors, a variety of demand side participation measures are modelled and shown to provide significant benefits. Lastly, projections of greenhouse gas emissions from the UK and the imports of fossil fuels to the UK for each of the three pathways are presented.

Price-based demand side management: Assessing the impacts of time-of-use tariffs on residential electricity demand and peak shifting in Northern Italy

One of the most common Demand Side Management programs consists of Time-of-Use (TOU) tariffs, where consumers are charged differently depending on the time of the day when they make use of energy services. This paper assesses the impacts of TOU tariffs on a dataset of residential users from the Province of Trento in Northern Italy in terms of changes in electricity demand, price savings, peak load shifting and peak electricity demand at substation level. Findings highlight that TOU tariffs bring about higher average electricity consumption and lower payments by consumers. A significant level of load shifting takes place for morning peaks. However, issues with evening peaks are not resolved. Finally, TOU tariffs lead to increases in electricity demand for substations at peak time.

Early–Middle Holocene vegetation history, climate change and human activities at Lago Riane (Ligurian Apennines, NW Italy)

The radiocarbon-dated palaeoecological study of Lago Riane (Ligurian Apennines, NW Italy) presented here forms part of a wider investigation into the relationships between Holocene vegetation succession, climate change and human activities in the northern Apennines. The record of vegetation history from Lago Riane indicates that, since the end of the last glaciation, climate change and prehistoric human activities, combined with several local factors, have strongly influenced the pattern and timing of natural vegetation succession. The pollen record indicates an important change in vegetation cover at Lago Riane at ~8500–8200 cal. years b.p., coincident with a well-known period of rapid climate change. At ~6100 cal. years b.p., Fagus woodland colonised Lago Riane during a period of climate change and expansion of Late Neolithic human activities in the upland zone of Liguria. A marked decline in Abies woodland, and the expansion of Fagus woodland, at ~4700 cal. years b.p., coincided with further archaeological evidence for pastoralism in the mountains of Liguria during the Copper Age. At ~3900–3600 cal. years b.p. (Early to Middle Bronze Age transition), a temporary expansion of woodland at Lago Riane has been provisionally attributed to a decline in human pressure on the environment during a period of short-term climate change