Pelsmakers, S. orcid.org/0000-0001-6933-2626, Fitton, R., Biddulph, P. et al. (7 more authors) (2017) Heat-flow variability of suspended timber ground floors: implications for in-situ heat-flux measuring. Energy and Buildings, 138. pp. 396-405. ISSN 0378-7788
Abstract
Reducing space heating energy demand supports the UK’s legislated carbon emission reduction targets and requires the effective characterisation of the UK’s existing housing stock to facilitate retrofitting decision-making. Approximately 6.6 million UK dwellings pre-date 1919 and are predominantly of suspended timber ground floor construction, the thermal performance of which has not been extensively investigated. This paper examines suspended timber ground floor heat-flow by presenting high resolution in-situ heat-flux measurements undertaken in a case study house at 15 point locations on the floor. The results highlight significant variability in observed heat-flow: point U-values range from 0.56 ±0.05 to 1.18 ±0.11 Wm-2K-1. This highlights that observing only a few measurements is unlikely to be representative of the whole floor heat-flow and the extrapolation from such point values to whole floor U-value estimates could lead to its over- or under- estimation. Floor U-value models appear to underestimate the actual measured floor U-value in this case study. This paper highlights the care with which in-situ heat-flux measuring must be undertaken to enable comparison with models, literature and between studies and the findings support the unique, high-resolution in-situ monitoring methodology used in this study for further research in this area.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Elsevier B.V. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Energy and Buildings. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | building performance; in-situ U-values; pre-1919 housing; retrofit; suspended timber ground floors; thermal performance |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Architecture (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2016 13:53 |
Last Modified: | 24 Dec 2017 01:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.12.051 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.12.051 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:109634 |