Woodknowledge Wales kicks off its building performance evaluation service at various social housing schemes around Wales
Starting on Friday 1 March, Dr Diana Waldron, Head of Built in Environment, and Clara Koehler, Embodied Carbon Lead, carried out various on-site building performance evaluation (BPE) on behalf of Woodknowledge Wales. This work was undertaken in collaboration with Build Test Solutions (BTS) and SOAP Retrofit. The sites under assessment are social housing schemes of various building typologies.
This work aims to develop strategies to tackle the ‘Performance Gap’. New homes often fail to meet low-energy targets, and to satisfy residents’ fundamental needs such as ease of use, summer comfort and energy costs. Woodknowledge Wales recommends a ‘core’ BPE scope for clients and project teams wanting to understand and improve the performance of their homes. This provides a holistic look at performance, including people, the indoor environment, fabric performance and energy use.
This approach limits the involvement of expensive equipment. Instead, the aim is to embed building performance throughout the project stages and empower project teams to deliver high performance.
All BPE equipment used by our team was supplied by Construction Wales Innovation Centre (CWIC) at the University of Trinity Saint David (UWTSD).
walls simultaneously.
A U-value, or thermal transmittance, measures heat transfer from inside to outside through a building element. It’s expressed in W/m²K. Infrared imagery helps locate suitable points for measuring U-values, typically areas with uniform temperatures away from thermal bridging zones. Therefore, these assessments used two methods to measure the U-values of various building elements: Heat3D and Heat flux plates/sensors.
Using Heat flux sensors to measure heat flux proves valuable as these readings indicate whether an object’s temperature will increase, decrease, or remain constant. They also provide insights into the reasons behind and the rate of temperature changes.
inlet and outlet points of the mechanical ventilation system.
Pulse tests assess building leakage from 2-15 Pa with dynamic high-frequency data logging over a brief 6-15 second test. Results at 4Pa are provided and extrapolated to 50Pa equivalents. Pulse tests confirm if replacement windows or doors have made your property more airtight. Pulse tests can be conducted pre- and post-installation.
Uptake of this new service has been excellent. Woodknowledge Wales undertook building performance evaluation in four different sites in different parts of Wales this month alone. We are starting to plan future sites for the next heating season.
If you would like to book Woodknowledge Wales team of experts to carry out a building performance evaluation on your site, please contact: diana.waldron@woodknowledgewales.co.uk
For further information on building performance, please read our Building Performance Evaluation Guide.
This guidance is aimed at housing clients, and anyone interested in Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) who want to evaluate and improve the performance of homes.
