Weather created for new homes - 10th February 2023

At the Energy House Labs in Salford, England, they're actually making weather. It's to test the energy efficiency of homes, as from 2025 the UK construction industry will be legally required to build new homes with reduced carbon emissions. The ability to speed up this process is vital, as laboratories' Director, Professor Will Swan, points out.

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."

Within the Labs, temperatures can be set anywhere from sub-zero to boiling hot, ranging from -20°C to 40°C. The houses can be artificially forced to experience snow storms and high winds.

Although the test homes inside the facility look ready to move into, currently the only occupants are collections of sophisticated scientific equipment. These include sensors used to test the devices, enabling the homes to become more environmentally friendly in all respects.

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 a technical director on this original project. He's thrilled with the advanced technological features they've been fortunate enough to try out.

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."

The major advantage of the new technology, according to Cox, is the way in which the various elements function 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."

With energy costs rising and climate change concerns growing across the world, these Energy House Labs could be a vital step in reaching carbon zero.