FUTURE [RE]GENERATION
BUILDINGS
ECO 2
Yes, but …
Why not !
Yes, but … Why not !
If you think to belong to the “Why Not” or to the “Yes, But” ?
Open-Linear Closed-Cyclical
Sustainable Unsustainable
Whole Systems Thinking: Household scale
Modular Transportable Timber-‐Frame Self-‐Built Eco-‐2-‐Housing
Not too thecnologic, complex, cool, expensive …
Not too natural, alternaBve, unreplicable …
But, something in the middle, simple, natural, efficient, nice …
Self-‐Building Factory-‐Schools
Self-‐Building Costs
Fine Design Eco-‐Houses
Fine Design Eco-‐Houses
SensiBve site design Influence of sun, wind, rain, microclimate
Site hydrology, topography, geology Site flora and fauna
Criiters
Wood + Bricks
Hea7ng
Hot air
Steam
Hot Water
HeaBng
Biomass -‐ Pellets
Thermo Solar
ComposBng
Passive House
Heat Pump
Electric Power Wind Mill
Hot air Turbine
Steam Turbine
Human power
Idro-‐ electric
Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough – the Passivhaus approach in Canolfan Hyddgen
WISE
St Lukes
Passivhaus buildings have very high and specific standards for airtightness and high levels of insulation. A significant amount of the heat energy needed will come from people in the building and the lights and equipment, so the architects need to know exactly how the building will be used. If the temperature changes the automatic
controls will decrease or increase heating, increase ventilation etc.
In use – understanding and managing the buildings
The manager at Canolfan Hyddgen makes sure that users know how the system works and
how to manage it
St Lukes Display WISE – the staff at CAT are very aware of energy management issues.
St Lukes has displays in every room describing how the systems in the school work and the
pupils will be able to access real time monitoring data of energy and water use on the
School’s computers
WAG Aberystwyth
St Lukes also has a cut-away display in the
lobby showing the warmcell insulation
Daylighting - light from the sun without glare – Y Senedd
The lantern allows natural daylight into the Siambr (Chamber where the Assembly members sit). A conical mirror within the lantern reflects addiBonal daylight into the Siambr and this can be
lowered to control daylight levels
The public open area has very large areas of window giving views over the Bay and reinforcing the idea of
an open democracy
Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough - Y Senedd
Canolfan Hyddgen Y Senedd WISE
St Lukes
. The roof cowl is designed to rotate with
changes in wind direction. This produces a negative pressure on the leeward side of the
cowl that allows warm air to be drawn out of the
Siambr
South
St Lukes
WAG Aberystwyth
Section of the WISE building
bedrooms workshops courtyard foyer lecture theatre
Large solar system – heating water for
the bedrooms below
Passive solar space heating
Daylighting from rooflights
Passive solar space heating of bedrooms
WISE - Making the best use of a site
Solar gain – Walls that stop heat from escaping and walls that store heat Canolfan Hyddgen
highly insulated external walls using Warmcel
solid internal walls and floor = thermal mass
Triple glazed
windows
Warmcel insulation - made from
recycled newspapers
Solar energy coming through the south facing
windows of Canolfan Hyddgen provides 1/3 of
the heating. The solar energy falls on the solid floor and internal walls and their thermal mass
stores the heat overnight
Solar gain - and then storing the sun’s energy as heat - WISE
On the south side of WISE a glazed area encloses the wall of the lecture theatre.
The solar energy falls on the solid, dense earth wall
which stores the heat overnight because of its
thermal mass.
Other internal walls on the ground floor in WISE are also dense - made of
unfired earth blocks
Double glazed low E windows Rammed
earth wall
The external walls in WISE are a 50cm thick mix of hemp and lime insulation.
Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough
Canolfan Hyddgen Y Senedd
In St Lukes the classrooms are cross ventilated by
natural wind flow from low level windows or vents that can be opened to the high
clerestory windows that are opened automatically.
Vents
Thermal mass can take some heat out of the air but sometimes you need to do more. Many modern buildings use air conditioning
but that uses a lot of energy.
The vents are designed with wooden slats on the outside and a grill so that they can even be left open at night in
the summer to cool the building down.
Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough - WISE
St Lukes
Thermal mass can take some heat out of the air but frequently you need to do more. Many modern
buildings use air conditioning but that uses a lot of energy.
In the lecture theatre there is a heirarchy of cooling/ventilation systems.
First a thermostat turns the underfloor heating off.
Fresh air can flow from the lobby and up out
through vents in the lantern (stack ventilation).
Then a CO2 sensor can trigger air to be drawn with a fan out through vents half way up the wall and through a system that either recovers heat or
draws in cool air, depending on the weather.
Renewable technologies – generating electricity
Canolfan Hyddgen has 7kW
of PV cells. These will generate about ¼ of
the building’s electricity use
CAT put in an extra 7kW of Photovoltaic cells attached to
WISE (added to an existing set of 13kW). The 7kW should produce 5300kWh a year.
PV cells are a very expensive way to generate electricity in the British
climate. The efficiency of the building itself is much more important.
The WAG building in Aberystwyth has a small wind turbine but WAG
policy is also to buy green electricity which will come from much more efficient
large scale windfarms
Renewable technologies – producing heat
Canolfan Hyddgen Y Senedd
As WISE has ensuite study bedrooms for people on
courses, it uses far more hot water than the other
buildings so it has a 70m2 solar water heating system.
St Lukes, WISE and the Senedd
have boilers that burn wood chip or
wood pellets.
WAG Aberystwyth
CAT is experimenting with a large wood chip combined-heat-and-
power plant to provide heat and electricity
for WISE
Low energy computers were specified in Canolfan Hyddgen because such a precise system
could overheat but it’s difficult to make sure that users continue to use low
energy appliances.
All these buildings use low energy lighting – LEDs and efficient
fluorescent tubes. They also use sensors to turn them
off when they are not needed
LED lighting in WISE
St Lukes WAG Aberystwyth
Managing energy – electricity use
Electrical devices use energy but they also give off heat which can make a big difference in a
very well insulated building
Low energy fridge in staff room at St Lukes
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