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Our understanding of thermal comfort in nZEB buildings is vital to the productivity, well-being and health of the people who occupy them

Project Insights

  • €345,400

    Total Project Costs
  • 3 yr

    Project Duration
  • 2019

    Year Funded

Project Description

The RESILIENCE Project is the first study of its kind in Ireland. Its aim is to systematically map and quantify how low or Nearly Zero Energy (i.e. nZEB) commercial building design, construction and operation in Ireland has affected or will affect indoor thermal environments in buildings that rely exclusively on passive strategies for the supply of fresh air and, more specifically, the removal of heat build-up that would otherwise lead to an unacceptable thermal experience for building occupants. To achieve this, the aim is to establish a national database of empirical indoor environmental data, (air and surface temperatures, humidity etc), for naturally ventilated (NV) commercial buildings, (low energy building in particular), that can be used to assess and quantify how existing modelling, prediction and compliance techniques perform in predicting overheating risk. The RESILIENCE project will address this performance assessment through the application of a novel methodology developed at MeSSO Research that demonstrates how to calibrate dynamic simulation of indoor air temperatures for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) to a very high level of accuracy. The project will develop and integrate improved compliance methodologies for assessing risks to overheating. The RESILIENCE Project also addresses a number of key areas important to both the design and operational performance of NV systems in NZEBs to mitigate overheating risk (and also overcooling) such as a parameter optimisation study of factors influencing indoor environments and a systematic mapping study of control strategies. A set of recommendations for predicting air temperatures in NZEB environments will be proposed (in addition to recommendations already developed and published by MeSSO in this area).

Project Details

Total Project Cost: €345,400

Funding Agency: SEAI

Year Funded: 2019

Lead Organisation: Cork Institute of Technology (CIT)

Partner Organisation(s): MeSSO Research Group

Paul D O' Sullivan

Lead Researcher