In our continuing series reporting on a range of facilities across the UK developing and modernising construction practice, we report on the new £16 million research centre in Salford, that has just been given the go-ahead by funders to create a 21st century product testing centre for the built environment.
The unique facility at the University of Salford will offer state-of the-art testing for hundreds of UK companies innovating in the construction, energy, smart homes and digital sectors. Business leaders and politicians have welcomed the investment which will give Greater Manchester (GM) the world's first all-weather research centre for whole building performance capable of cutting test times for new products from years to a matter of weeks.
"From addressing fuel poverty, to widespread use of electric vehicles and the delivery of energy-efficient homes and buildings - we're determined to push boundaries to make Greater Manchester one of the greenest city regions in Europe," says GM Mayor Andy Burnham. "The innovations and research delivered by our world-leading universities, including this new research centre coming to Salford University, will help change the way we build forever. Energy House 2.0 at the University of Salford will be a significant driver towards truly net zero carbon homes and workplaces, not just here in Greater Manchester but across the UK."
This project is part of the University of Salford's strategy of industry collaboration and partnerships, developing spaces and a proactive environment to deliver mutually beneficial value from industry and academia, with collaboration in teaching, research and joint enterprises. The new facility - Energy House 2.0 - is timely given the UK's Industrial Strategy concentrating on 'clean growth' and also supports Greater Manchester's plans to position itself as a world-leading green business and clean tech hub.
Energy House 2.0 is a successor to the University's hugely-successful Energy House, which opened in 2011 and has provided the science behind technological change and a raft of initiatives to save on energy bills particularly for Britain's five million 'fuel-poor' households.
The new blueprint is a much a larger, more flexible facility to the existing facility - a Victorian terraced house inside an environmental chamber - where all sorts of buildings can be constructed, tested and demolished. The laboratory will create wind, snow, rain, solar simulation and temperatures between -20C and +40C. It houses sensor, thermal, data and visualisation laboratories and new product development unit under a single roof with viewing galleries and a board room.
"We will be building two 'greenfield' chambers where people can and build what they like and test it and we are there to help them do that," says Professor Will Swan, Principal Research Investigator for Energy House. "Energy House 2.0 will unite teams of designers, physicists, electronic engineers, materials scientists and acousticians to support innovation in energy efficiency, new materials and building techniques, and to explore smart and connected homes, digital futures and wellbeing and health. The beauty of a both Energy House and Energy House 2 is that they can providing the same robust data around products in weeks that it may take researchers months if not years to collect in the field."
Energy House 2.0 is designed to address the challenges of bridging the performance gap between how we think our buildings will perform and how they actually perform. "We need better quality data to give us a more detailed perspective of what is happening in our buildings and we need to think about buildings as systems - the performance gap can only be closed when we understand how the whole building performs."
Mike Ormesher, Research and Product Development Director at the BBA, said: "Following the successful integration of Energy House 1 and its effective delivery of insight for energy efficiency and building physics, it is fantastic news that the University of Salford have decided to develop this support to industry to include Energy House 2.0. This facility is a much needed support mechanism for the UKs new and existing building stock and will provide the research quality we need as a certification partner along with many other industry partners, such as regulators, insurance companies, mortgage lenders, manufacturers, designers of all professions and indeed government. This is undoubtedly a great step in the right direction for effective assessment of products, systems and complete structures."
People living and working in buildings use 45% of all energy in the EU. As the world becomes more urbanised, creating bigger cities, it is critical to understand how buildings perform. The Energy House 2.0 will not only be about energy and housing but will be looking at wider opportunities to bring teams of industry and academic researchers together to work on the problems of the future built environment. David Kemp, Director at North West housing consortium Procure Plus said: "This will be a brilliant resource to support local business growth, carbon reduction and delivery of a host of other societal benefits. The ability to test products, services, and design and construction techniques in real buildings under controlled laboratory conditions will allow companies to get a real understanding of their strengths and weaknesses."
The project is funded through the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. Energy House 2.0 is forecast to be completed in 2020.
For more information visit: www.salford.ac.uk
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