Heritage buildings and energy efficiency

[Anonymous]

Hi. Given that a key aspect of preserving a heritage or period building is breathability and ventilation, and given also that a key aspect of energy efficiency is airtightness, how does one play these two off against one another in an old building, to both make it energy efficient and yet allow it to breathe and also preserve its aesthetics? Is there some sort of optimum balance? Or some special technique? If a balance, how is it determined? Thanks.

[Jon Hand]

One of the main topics in PH workshops is getting folk up to speed with the concept of an energy balance and how to use them to guide ‘what-if’ assessments of the efficacy of various design options. The same topics will likely come up in AECB training sessions.

The PHPP provides some information… and many design teams will make use of the energy balances reported by other numerical tools to go into more specific details of the where and when.  Here is a brief video which looks at links between different parts of a building and the heat flow paths reported in an energy balance.  -Jon Hand, Glasgow

Here is a link to the video 

[Tony Cowling]

When we talk about energy efficiency I thing we are meaning to talk about energy use reduction – could also be thought of as demand reduction or energy use minimisation.

[Author]

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