Energy and environmental performance of the 'Abertridwr community' - First winter season

This paper discusses initial findings from the first eight months (July 2013 to February 2014) of the environmental performance monitoring as part of a Technology Strategy Board funded Building Performance Evaluation programme project at the Abertridwr ecological micro-community, in Wales, UK. The case study community includes eight low-impact, ecological, low carbon flats, one additional flat and four houses; occupied from 2010. The community was developed by United Welsh Housing Association and received a grant from the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change midway through construction, enabling eight flats to be upgraded to level four of the code for sustainable homes so incorporate ecological materials and systems. All the units use exhaust air source heat pumps (EASHPs) to provide their hot water and space heating needs; a system that has been reported to have significant costs for some housing association tenants across the UK. The project discussed in this paper builds upon earlier research undertaken by the same housing association led by the first author of this paper, which followed a 12 month detailed environmental and energy performance monitoring period, that indicated EASHPs could provide comfortable internal conditions at low monthly and annual costs [1]. Interim results from the first winter's (2013/14) monitoring at the Abertridwr project indicate that heating (space and water) are not excessive for a flat occupied by two adults and a house occupied by three adults and one child. Yet, there are potential issues of occupancy energy-use strategies disguising overall actual building performance as a function of problems for the designed building fabric and installed energy strategies. The monitoring continues until August 2014, when 12 months analysis will be undertaken before final reporting in September 2014. This paper will be of interest to academics, designers, contractors, environmental engineers and building owners.