IES Modelling - Small Housing Units/Flat

Densely populated cities like London face the problem of housing shortage. Population growth is
one of the main reasons for housing crisis across the globe. Minimum dwelling size should be
taken into consideration to save space. A smaller building will cause less environmental impact.
With a smaller scale of construction with the same capacity, it requires less resource for building
material. During the construction, less energy and time are needed to complete a small house in
comparison to a bigger house. In consideration of all these, the cost to build a small housing is
definitely cheaper and more affordable. Less energy will also be needed for living.
The individual living units will be 20m2 (+5m2 - loft bed). 2 individual living units are attached so
that the partition in the middle can be removed if a bigger family is to move into the unit.
The strategies are studied to investigate the best solution for building performance. They are
listed as follows:
1, Building construction materials
2, Orientation of the building
3, Sun view and shading device
4, Glazing size and orientation
5, Ventilation system
The building is first modelled with NCM 2013 construction material, then compared with the
real situation, the CLT construction material. The model is then improved with the use of
aerogel insulation, triple glazed window with softwood window frame to achieve the Passivhaus
U-value standards. In comparison with all the building materials, a well insulated external
glazing with U-value of 0.6475 W/mK contributes to the most saving of natural gas used to heat
up the space. The change in roof material has the least impact due to the stacking of another
units on top.
The thickness of the insulation at the external wall is investigated due to the importance of the
wall thickness to maximised the space within the units. Based on the graph, the performance
becomes less significant when the thickness of the aerogel insulation goes beyond 150mm.
By optimising the construction material, a reduction of 38.9% in natural gas consumption and 23%
reduction in energy used can be achieved.
The study of building orientation is linked with the use of lighting electricity and system
electricity. A sensor is used to monitored the illuminance level within the space. The variation
profile is based on the NCM Dwelling Profile, however, the dimming profile is set so that the
lights would be fully on when there is no light and gradually reduce to 30% when the sensed
illuminance level is reached.
North facing unit has the most energy consumption due to the least solar gain. The south facing
unit has the least total energy consumption. However, west facing unit has the least lights

electricity consumption but the highest consumption of system electricity due to overheating.
System electricity contributes to the major part of the total electricity used.
The sun view shows that the lounge is visible from the sun angle throughout the year. Therefore
a shading device should be introduced to prevent overheating. An internal and external shading
device are introduced to investigate on the total system energy used to cool down the building
especially in summer. The external shading contributes to the saving of 35.4kWh/year of the
total system energy used which is not very effective but provide thermal comfort during the
hottest month.
The default model has the large window on the south facing facade and small window in the
bathroom facing north. A smaller window on the south facing contributes to a lower electricity
used but a higher amount of natural gas is needed to heat up the space during the cold months.
A larger window on the north does not contribute to the saving of electricity and natural gas.
Therefore, the openings on the north should remains as small as possible.
Natural ventilation is introduced to the model. The opening of window at 50% in the lounge and
the bedroom and 20% in the bathroom is applied when the room air temperature is higher than
23oC and the exterior dry bulb temperature. Based on the graph, The air temperature is lowered
from 31.03oC to 27.1oC during the hottest day. With the ventilation system applied, a total
saving of 61.7kWh/year can be achieved. However, due to the heat loss through the opening of
windows, the usage of natural gas increases to heat up the space.
Lastly, the model is investigated based on the best strategies studied. The optimum model
achieves 71.15kWh/m2/year which is 40.5% saving as compared to the default model as well as
55.20 kgCO2 m2/year (a saving of 19.1%). The model does not yet to achieve the Passivhaus
standard of 15 kWh/m2/year and 'zero carbon emission'.
Further studies:

Profile variation (current - NCM Dwelling Templates)

Building form