10.07.2015   EUROSUN 2008

Case Studies

2.1. Welsh Housing Stock Survey (STACS)

The housing types used in this study are drawn from generic housing data for Wales taken from the STACS project [2]. This selection is believed to give a good approximation of the entire Welsh Housing Stock. Materials and geometry data for the 12 dwellings shown in Table 1 are provided by the survey. For the purposes of this study the 12 types are treated as representative case studies and the results are considered indicative for the entire housing stock of Wales.

Table i. typical dwellings of Wales (STACS)

No

Dwelling type

area (m2)

1

Pre-1850 Detached House

87.27

2

Pre-1850 Converted Flat

103.52

3

1850-1919 Semi Detached House

220.09

4

1920-1944 Semi Detached House

93.32

5

1945 — 1964 Low-rise Flat

65.74

6

1945-1964 Semi-detached House

89.17

7

1965-1980 Detached House

116.72

8

1965-1980 Mid-terrace House

105.42

9

1981-1999 Low-rise Flat

44.70

10

1981-1999 Mid-terrace House

55.82

11

2000-2006 Semi-detached House

74.92

12

Post-2006 High-rise Flat

57.47

The actual orientation of each house is used and for the overshadowing assessment, the impact of the volumes of the building itself and of the buildings attached to it (e. g. if semi-detached or mid­terrace) are only taken into account, ignoring other neighbouring buildings and vegetation.

2.2. Software

For the simulations conducted in this study, the software package TRNSYS (version 16.01.0002) is used [3]. The software has a modular structure with a main visual interface known as the TRNSYS Simulation Studio. There is also a dedicated interface for the multizone building component (TRNBuild) which is one of the most complex models in TRNSYS. The building component of TRNSYS has undergone testing under the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140 and IEA BESTEST with acceptable results. Validation tools have been also used during the development of the software [4,5]. In addition the software Ecotect [6] is used as a front-end for the building modelling and for certain stages of the analysis as described below. Ecotect is is a complete building design and environmental analysis tool with a very advanced and user-friendly 3D interface.