Energy and Carbon Efficiency of Historic Buildings
Characteristics of Historical Buildings and their Energy Efficiency Challenges
Historic buildings have their distinctive ways of managing their indoor climate comparing to their modern counterparts. The materials and the construction methods used in historic buildings demand special thoughts when considering various options of energy and carbon efficiency interventions.
The climate nowadays and its changing trend in the future are rather different from when the buildings were originally designed and constructed. The overheating of indoor spaces due to warmer weather conditions is becoming more of an issue affecting users and visitors of the buildings.
Many of the historic buildings and sites have gone through rounds of adaptations and extensions that may or may not lead to satisfactory energy efficiency. They also have impact on how future interventions are designed and implemented.
Historical buildings have typically changed their use at some points. Original designs and past adaptations may not be fit for purpose or lead to the required comfort of their current and future users.
The planning regime is a very important factor with constraints on what changes can be made and how they can be implemented. Considerable thoughts are needed to balance the conservation of historical characteristics with the need of renewing the buildings for sustainability, energy efficiency, and for their journey towards net zero.
Our Digital Twin Approach and its Benefits to Owners and Operators
The overall approach we take is to take the historical construction and adaptations into account, embrace the whole building or whole site for its lifecycle, create a functional digital model of it, incorporate information and data associated with constructions, materials, activities, energy consumptions, heating and ventilation in the model, perform thermal modelling simulations, and produce informative outcomes.
Key Points at the Data Gathering Step
Simulation and Reporting
The digital twin of the building or site that has been created on the cloud based WISDOM platform becomes an essential tool that the owners and operators can use for general decision making, operational management, guiding for actions towards energy and cost saving.
Parts of the digital twin, with its 3D immersive visual effect, can also be used for purposes of marketing, education and asset management.