I'm delighted that Building Life Consortium has won DCC tender to research & write 'Built to Last- Energy Efficiency in Pre-1945 Historic Dwellings in Dublin City'. We're looking for case studies!
The consortium is made up of Building Life Consultancy, Fergal McGirl Architects, IHER and Alembic Research. The research will broaden the range of knowledge and improve the level of guidance of old buildings. The book should be published early Spring 2014.
We will be:
1) classifying Dublin's dwellings (extending work done under IEE-funded Tabula project)
2) mining SEAI data for the number and nature of energy-efficient retrofits under the various funded schemes
3) Measuring U-values, water absorptivity and various other characteristics of solid wall construction
4) Assessing a limited number of retrofitted dwellings, including interviewing the occupants to learn about methods chosen, thermal comfort claw back, cost-value, quality & procurement issues etc:case studies needed!
5) Assessing unretrofitted dwellings to see what we can learn about their current performance (as opposed to how they are often see or various DEAP defaults):case studies needed!
6) Looking at the issue of maintenance and the performance gap
7) Providing advice to homeowners on what they should think of and do with their pre-45 dwellings
8) Assembling some international case studies
Despite that exciting breadth, the funding and timescale do not allow this to be a comprehensive study: it is however a great start - broadening various streams of research and knowledge, and starting several other streams.
By all means give me your thoughts