Energy House
Energy House Laboratories. Shaping the future of energy.
The way UK energy is supplied and consumed is changing fast. Consumers and small businesses will soon be able to generate, store, share, buy and sell their energy as the government encourages the transition to a greener economy.
Through commercial and grant funded research, Energy House Laboratories helps businesses understand how effective their products and services are in lowering consumers’ carbon footprint and reducing energy bills.
Professor Will Swan and Professor Richard Fitton, MRICS are the Energy House Laboratories management team.
Energy House 1
Energy House 1 is a unique research and testing laboratory and comprises an early 20th century two-bedroom terraced house within an environmental chamber allowing an accurate and rapid assessment of energy efficient retro fit technologies.
It is a traditional construction; solid brick walls, suspended timber floors and single glazed windows with a conventional ‘wet’ heating system fired by a gas boiler. The environmental chamber can be used to simulate a wide variety of weather conditions with a temperature range from -12°C to +30°C. The chamber is also equipped with rigs to simulate wind, rain, snow and incident solar radiation.
Throughout the chamber and the house there are over 200 monitoring points with real time data collection of parameters such as temperature, humidity, heat flux, electricity and gas consumption.
The facility underpins a range of research topics including:
- Building physics/performance
- Sensors/data collection
- Data analysis and visualisation
- Human factors
- Smart meters and connected homes
Energy House Expertise
Energy House explore issues of energy consumption in buildings. We use data from large scale field trials and building performance tests to construct accurate models and simulations of buildings and data analytics to look at large data sets of building and energy performance. Our team works with partners across a range of commercial and grant funded projects, providing a comprehensive offer of energy and buildings expertise.
Energy House 2.0
Research conducted through Energy House 1 over the last 12 years has led to important changes in the way that UK housing becomes more energy efficient. Now imagine if we could replicate the environmental conditions experienced by housing stock and consumers throughout most of the world. This would give us the opportunity to work with international industry partners and help to solve some major global challenges.
Energy House 2.0 opened in January 2023 and is a unique £16 million research facility. Consisting of two environmental chambers, each chamber can accommodate two detached houses and under controlled conditions, recreate a wide variety of weather conditions with temperatures ranging between -20˚C to +40˚C, simulate wind, rain, snow and solar radiation, and will play a key role in accelerating the progress towards low carbon and net zero housing design.
Energy House 2.0 was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Office for Students.
Salford Smart Home
Working with Energy House Labs, Barratt Developments built a revolutionary house: the Salford Smart Home (formerly known as the Barratt Zed House) – the first home in the UK that takes sustainability beyond the current Future Homes Standards.
The Salford Smart Home is fitted with several sensors that will record data for Energy House Labs research. It will be monitored to assess its performance using the research and expertise of the University’s Energy House Laboratories.
It is the first new home in the country built by a major housebuilder to go beyond the new Future Homes Standard by delivering a carbon reduction of 125%.
The house was developed as an industry showcase home to demonstrate what is achievable, particularly from a mainstream, volume housebuilder. The new home was built with over 40 leading industry partners from across the housebuilding, sustainability and technology sectors, all helping to broaden knowledge in zero carbon living with the lessons learnt from the construction being shared across the industry.
The house features cutting edge technology such as overhead infrared panels that provide instant zero carbon heat, new air powered showers that will save families in water and heating bills, plaster which eliminates pollutants giving cleaner, healthier air, a fridge which keeps the right humidity resulting in 60% less food wastage, and innovative heated skirting boards delivering 10% more heat than traditional radiators whilst also saving space.
The Salford Smart Home was constructed using the latest building methods incorporating Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) such as closed panel timber frames with highly insulated cladding, factory fitted windows and offsite panelised masonry ground floor wall panels, reducing the need for bricklayers and the time it takes to build by half. It includes the most modern sustainable housing technology such as an air source heat pump, EV charging points, PV solar panels, and battery storage.
Outside the Salford Smart Home, there is a biodiversity garden featuring nests, a wildlife pond, hedgehog highways, and green wall. The team worked with experts from RSPB and Barratt to help promote wildlife and nature at the house, with the garden achieving a gold rating from RSPB.
Smart Meters>Smart Homes Laboratory
Smart meters technology is designed to help meet carbon reduction targets, put an end to estimated bills and help people save money. The smart meter sits at the heart of an increasingly complex smart home energy system made up of any combination of energy saving appliances, energy storage devices, electric vehicle chargers, smart speakers, sensors and wearable technology.
As the UK’s first smart meter research laboratory, our researchers help our commercial customers explore how their innovative products and services can get the best out of smart meters to help UK consumers use energy more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Thermal Measurement Laboratory
The Thermal Measurement Laboratory at the University of Salford has been providing a test research and development service to the insulation and construction industry for over 40 years. The Laboratory provides accurate and verifiable measurements of insulation performance of component building materials which is essential for the realistic evaluation of carbon savings in the enormous areas of exposed elements in the built environment.
Measurement credibility of the Laboratory is underpinned by the rigour of accreditation (UKAS Testing laboratory No. 1660, Notified laboratory No. 1145 for UK approved body for UKCA and CE + UKNI marking) for measuring the thermal conductivity and resistance of materials used in buildings.
Committed to excellent professional practice, the testing and calibration activities are carried out in accordance with client requirements and strict UKAS procedures to ensure an impartial, high standard of service and confidence in the reported results.
The Laboratory operates a management system to international standards which meets both the technical competence requirements and management system requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 that are necessary for the Laboratory to constantly deliver technically valid test results within its accredited scope.
Thermal Measurement Laboratory Expertise
The Laboratory offers expertise in all aspects of thermal properties of building materials, energy conservation, insulation materials and methods to ISO 8301, ISO 8302, BS EN 12667, and BS EN 12664 and provides measurements to product standards EN 13162 – EN 13171.
Our range of services includes:
- Accredited and accurate thermal conductivity/resistance measurements
- Thermo-physical expertise in the built environment (temperature range 0 – 80 °C)
- Expertise in the field of heat transfer mechanisms in thermal insulation
- Initial type testing under the Construction Products Regulation (for UKCA and CE + UKNI marking of thermal insulation products)
- Traceable Thermal Measurements
- Emissivity measurements
- Thermal calculations and impartial technical reports
UKAS Accredited Thermal Conductivity / Resistance Measurements:
- Heat Flow Meter Method (UKAS Accredited)
- Uncertainty 2.5 to 5%, depending on sample specifications
- Testing of insulation materials
- Modified method to test masonry and hard materials
- Built Environment ISO 8302, BS EN 12667, and BS EN 12664
- ASTM standards, based on ISO BS EN methods
Additional services
In addition to our laboratories, we have other areas of expertise to help us explore issues of energy consumption in buildings. These incorporate data collection from large scale field trials, building performance, using both established and novel methods, using this data to construct accurate models and simulations of buildings and data analytics to look at large data sets of building and energy performance. These teams work with partners across a range of commercial and grant funded projects, providing a comprehensive offer of energy and buildings expertise.
Fieldwork team
Understanding the performance of buildings in the field is an important part of improving energy efficiency. Our fieldwork team has experience of working in occupied properties to trial new technologies and evaluate energy efficiency improvements.
Modelling and simulation
Using modelling and simulation tools allows us to see how your buildings might perform under different conditions. Working with measured data we can understand how your building might perform over a number of years and within differing climates.
Building performance analysis
The Energy House Laboratories team has been at the forefront of new ways to understand buildings. We have worked with teams to look at new and faster methods to understand building fabric performance, as well as refining more established practices.
Data analytics
Large-scale field trials and collecting large data sets from multiple sensors mean we have a lot of experience in dealing with large data sets. Understanding what the key findings are from your data is a central issue for building energy performance and we can help you understand what your data means.