Simulated weather aids construction - 10th February 2023

Inside the Energy House Labs in Salford, England, the energy efficiency of new-builds is being researched and tested. The overriding goal is to make substantial reductions in carbon emissions.

As the construction sector gears up to implement new government regulations on housing from 2025, the capacity to fast-track such experiments artificially is paramount, as Professor Will Swan, Labs Director, clarifies.

Will Swan: "When you try and understand, you know, how a house is energy efficient, you normally have to wait for the weather, so here we bring the weather to the research problem. We can compress a two year experiment into sometimes a matter of weeks."

Inside these unique chambers, the test homes can be soaked by torrential rain, battered by snowy blizzards and buffeted by gusty winds. They can be heated to 40°C and then chilled to -20°C from the safety of a control room.

Despite looking inviting, these special homes on the premises are occupied solely by a range of state-of-the-art sensors and scientific paraphernalia used to measure the energy efficiency of various technological gadgets.

Will Swan: "What we're experimenting on is everything. So doors, windows, insulation, fabric, right the way down to the heating and cooling systems within the homes. The experiments we're doing here now with our partners are really to try and understand how we deliver those future net zero homes in the UK."

Having already had the opportunity to trial some of the latest technological innovations which feature in these test buildings, technical director Tom Cox is upbeat and enthusiastic.

Tom Cox: "We've got the panel heating, which is a point source in the room, and we've got a very unique research product up here which is an infra-red coving."

In Cox's opinion, what's particularly impressive about the technology is how the separate components can combine as one integrated system.

Tom Cox: "So one of the key technologies that we're trialling on this house is almost like a building management system for residential buildings. You connect all of that technology into a single interface. It's almost like the Alexa of the the home energy system. And that can be automated as much as the occupant wants."

Before soaring energy bills go through the roof and climate change goes off the scale, this facility makes the imminent construction of net zero homes seem feasible.