Measurement and comparative evaluation of thermal transmittance of a hundred Scottish houses

The research was conducted on steady-state heat loss as quantified by U-value assessment to provide an appraisal by looking at a range of factors that may have an impact on the energy performance and environmental behavior of dwellings. The study consists of fifty houses built between 1915-2015 and fifty pre-1915 properties identified as being of traditional construction all of which are Scottish homes, while some of which are in a rough condition with various aspects of the energy performance and environmental behavior.This paper demonstrates that there is a close correlation between the U-values of components and the age of a property and its energy efficiency. The other point is that the U-values of elements of the houses built after 1985 increased with a higher slope. It is figured out that the older the homes, the less improvement/change on U-values; also, it concluded that the use of renewable energy systems and sustainable technologies is necessary for old houses to meet level 6 of code for sustainable homes.The trend of U-values reduction with wall thickness has been observed, but no simple equivalences should be drawn between wall thickness and U-values as each circumstance will determine the possibilities of what materials can be deployed to have the best effect by taking into account numerous factors including historical fabric, loss of interior room space and general buildability.

Keywords:

Age of the houses , Building energy performance simulation , Heat transfer coefficient (U-value) , Traditional dwellings , Zero carbon homes