Knowledge: Energy Efficiency
Knowledge: Energy Efficiency
City’s energy use to be analysed from
the sky using drones and balloons
The energy and resource use in one of the
UK’s biggest cities will be analysed by a
new £1.8 million centre at the University
of Sheffield. Researchers at the Urban
Flows Observatory will create a model
of Sheffield’s energy and resource usage
using fixed and mobile sensors and
thermal cameras attached to drones,
balloons and cars to scan the city.
The model will help to create a detailed
understanding of material stocks in the
city, the energy embodied within them, as
well as understanding how energy use is
distributed across the city, which buildings
are losing the most heat, and where solar
energy can be most effective.
Funded by the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the
centre aims to understand energy use
across the city with the aim to reduce the
city’s environmental impact.
Professor Martin Mayfield, Co-Director
of the Urban Flows Observatory from
A Green Building Council report stating
that 25 million UK homes need to be
retrofitted between now and 2050 has
been welcomed by insulation expert Actis.
The report “Building Places that Work
for Everyone – industry insights into key
government priorities” says that more
than one home a minute will need to be
insulated over the next 33 years if the
government is to achieve its 2050 target of
cutting carbon emissions by 80 per cent.
“The UK has amongst the worst housing
stock in the whole of Europe when it
comes to energy efficiency – and it’s
responsible for a third of our carbon
emissions,” says Mark Cooper, national
sales director at pan European insulation
specialist Actis.
“The collapse of the Green Deal and the
removal of the zero carbon standard have
not helped. And neither has the perception
that retrofitting is disruptive. It can be, but
it doesn’t have to be that bad - depending
on the construction of the house and the
type of insulation materials used..”
28 | www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk
the Department of Civil and Structural
Engineering, said: “Around 80 per cent of
the UK’s energy and resources are used by
our cities. By analysing these energy and
resource flows, we will be able to advise
councils and town planners on issues such
as how to raise productivity or save energy
and reduce heat loss across the city.
“In the future, we plan to look at other
aspects such as air pollution and other
social indicators.”
Dr Danielle Densley Tingley, Co-Director,
said: “One of the things the observatory
seeks to understand is what Sheffield is
made of. A detailed understanding of
material use in the stock, when combined
with an understanding of energy use and
heat loss, will enable strategic retrofit
across the city, facilitate planning decisions
and support material salvage on buildings
scheduled for demolition.”
The Urban Flows Observatory is
part of a wider network of UK Urban
Observatories, a collaborative venture
led by the Universities of Newcastle,
Bristol and Sheffield, and part of UKCRIC
(UK Collaboratorium for Research in
Infrastructure and Cities), 14 universities
working to address issues of national
infrastructure development.
Actis welcomes Green Building
Council’s government insulation report
Mark Cooper of Actis has warned of the condition of Britain’s housing stock
Congestion is crippling
green public transport Alpha increases SAP
points for housing
development
Increasing traffic congestion means
advances in greener public transport
technology are failing to reach their full
potential, according to the UK’s largest bus
operator.
“Golden opportunities” to cut gridlock
have been missed, leaving electric, hybrid,
gas and hydrogen buses stuck alongside
cars, which are often more polluting.
Speaking ahead of Scottish Renewables
first Low-Carbon Cities Conference,
Stagecoach’s Engineering Director Sam
Greer told how the company’s £90 million-
a-year investment in ultra-low emission
buses was improving urban air quality –
but could do more.
He said: “One of the challenges we face
as a bus operator is a lack of road space. It
doesn’t matter what technology we invoke
into the bus market if congestion stays at
the same level. If road space isn’t freed up
then we will still have same number of cars
and same air quality issues.
“Buses can help reduce the number
of cars on the roads and reduce carbon
emissions – they’re part of the solution, not
the problem.”
Bus speeds in Glasgow are declining at a
rate of 1.5 per cent per annum: worse than
London, Edinburgh and Manchester.
Mr Greer, who will address an ‘Inspiring
change’ session at the February 22 event in
Edinburgh, highlighted the introduction of
bus gates in Glasgow and a bus lane on the
M90 into Edinburgh as positive moves.
He continued: “Ideas like hard shoulder
running, where traffic can travel on the
hard shoulder at peak times to reduce
congestion, have been mooted for years
but have only ever been implemented in a
piecemeal way.
“The M8 should have it. It’s been talked
about for the M77 since the motorway
was opened. A golden opportunity to
allow traffic to run on the shoulder of
the new M74 in Glasgow was missed by
Government, and that’s frustrating.
“Buses have a fundamental role into
the 2030s and beyond. More than three
quarters of people who travel by public Innovation’s high efficiency Intec 30GS
boilers have recently been utilised on a
Southern Households Ltd development
of three to four bed houses on the Isle of
Wight, providing a cost effective means of
reaching the Domestic Emissions Rate.
Southern Households Ltd standard
practice is to meet the DER for its homes
by exceeding the minimum insulation
requirement, using mineral wool full fill
products. However, with the Isle of Wight
exposed to strong winds and driving
rain, mineral wool wasn’t suitable – and
achieving the same U Values with a PIR
solution was set to add cost to the build.
Watertight Plumbing Solutions therefore
recommended that the TER was met by
higher efficiency boilers from Alpha.
The Alpha InTec 30GS is a wall mounted
high efficiency condensing combination
boiler with an in-built passive flue gas
heat recovery device – Alpha’s GasSaver
technology. A GasSaver increases the
overall efficiency of a heating or hot
water system. The compact unit extracts
heat from waste gases that are normally
expelled into the atmosphere through the
boiler flue. This is then used to preheat cold
mains water before entering the boiler. As
the boiler is heating warmed water rather
than cold, 35 per cent less gas on average
is used to produce hot water, reducing
energy bills and saving up to half a ton of
carbon per year. Alpha’s GS1 GasSaver is a
recognised additional feature in SAP, which
improves the DER rating on the overall
building efficiency by approximately
6%. As such, it was an ideal solution for
Southern Households Ltd.
Simon Long of Watertight Plumbing
Solutions commented, saying, “One of the
biggest challenges we faced, aside from
efficiency, was physical space for the boiler.
I chose Alpha for the project, because
the Intec 30GS suited the needs of the
job perfectly with an all-in-one package
providing high efficiency and maximising
room capacity. It was also really simple
to fit, which helped to cut down on
installation time.”
A Stagecoach electric hybrid bus
transport in Scotland travel by bus. That’s
more than all other public transport modes
put together.
“But things are changing. We want to
reduce air pollution, so Stagecoach is
already the largest operator of part-electric
buses in the UK and has the largest fleet of
hydrogen buses in Europe.
“Cutting emissions from transport means
getting people out of their cars. I would
like to see greater cognisance of all the
measures which are already available to
local and central government to help do
this. Options like limiting car parking
spaces in cities and introducing bus gates,
as Glasgow City Council has done, could
make a real difference.”
Jenny Hogan, Director of Policy at
industry body Scottish Renewables, said:
“Transport makes up a quarter of the total
energy we consume in Scotland, so efforts
to reduce carbon emissions from the sector
are important if we want to meet our
climate targets.
“Cutting congestion and getting people
out of their cars must be the top priority,
closely followed by adopting new
technologies and clean fuels like hydrogen.
“But replacing petrol and diesel with
electricity or hydrogen to power our
railways and vehicles is only low carbon if it
comes from renewable sources.
“Converting more solar, wind and
ocean energy into electricity, hydrogen
and sustainable biofuel is the only way
to ensure our future transport system
is truly clean and green.” Alpha Heating
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