Abstract
This paper presents a novel transient experimental method developed in order to perform in situ measurements of the thermal performance of building fabrics: the QUB/e method. In one night, a QUB/e test yields the whole house heat loss coefficient (HLC) and the local in situ U-values. A comprehensive set of in situ measurements were carried out in a circa 1900 solid wall end-terrace house located in an environmental chamber to evaluate the thermal performance of the building fabric and to validate the QUB/e method. The accuracy of the QUB/e method was assessed against steady-state measurements before and after a deep retrofit, both the HLC and U-values were used in the comparison. The measurement of the HLC using the QUB/e method for heating durations down to one hour yielded accurate results (i.e. the relative differences from the value estimated with the steady-state method were smaller than 10%) provided the α-criterion lay within the recommended range (i.e. between approximately 0.4 and 0.7). The U-values measured in situ with the QUB/e method were in good agreement with the steady-state (ISO 9869-1) values (i.e. the relative differences were within the uncertainty bound of the measurement methods). The QUB/e method was thus deemed validated by comparison with reference U-values measured in accordance with ISO 9869-1.
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Acknowledgements
The funding of the project was provided by Saint-Gobain. The project management was under the responsibility of Luke Smith (National Energy Foundation). Richard Fitton and Mo Benjaber (University of Salford) provided the technical support for the operation of the Energy Hub during the project. The thermal upgrade of the test house was carried out by Jacob Eco Energy under the supervision of Saint-Gobain Habitat UK. The installation/removal of the sensors was carried out with the help of Olivier Samin (Saint-Gobain Recherche) and the Centre for the Built Environment (CeBE) of the Leeds Sustainability Institute of Leeds Beckett University (LBU).
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Meulemans, J., Alzetto, F., Farmer, D., Gorse, C. (2017). QUB/e: A Novel Transient Experimental Method for in situ Measurements of the Thermal Performance of Building Fabrics. In: Dastbaz, M., Gorse, C., Moncaster, A. (eds) Building Information Modelling, Building Performance, Design and Smart Construction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50346-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50346-2_9
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