Science makes weather for new homes - 10th February 2023

At the Energy House Labs, England, they can produce different weather conditions. They're using this to test new houses.

From 2025, the building business will have new rules. The carbon which houses make needs to fall, but time's short.

Director Will Swan explains how this centre works.

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."

In this science laboratory, the temperature can be extremely cold or hot - from -20°C to +40°C. It can also be stormy, windy or snowy. The test homes look normal enough, but they're just for research. They're empty of people but full of modern technology. The idea is to make homes greener and cheaper.

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."

Tom Cox is the head of technology there. He feels very positive about the range of technology in the houses.

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."

Cox is pleased about how all the systems are able to work together.

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."

Both energy costs and climate change problems are increasing. These Energy Labs are one way to discover fast, reliable solutions.