The significance of an efficiency first approach to building
Edinburgh Napier is a partner in a project which will use two ice boxes to demonstrate the significance of an efficiency first approach to building.
The Ice Box Challenge launches today in St Enoch Square, Glasgow, the city which will host the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, in November.
The public installation and contest – running to August 6, involves one ice box constructed to the Scottish Building Standard and another which meets the Passive House Standard, a highly energy efficient building performance standard, which Glasgow City Council and local housing associations have increasingly implemented in new build and retrofit projects.
As the name suggests, Passive House buildings make efficient use of passive heating and cooling sources. To demonstrate this during the Ice Box Challenge, each box is filled with an equal amount of ice at the beginning of the experiment.
After a fortnight, at the closing ceremony on August 6, the amount of ice left in each box will be measured. The level of ice remaining will demonstrate how well each ice box passively kept out the heat.
The project is a joint effort from the International Passive House Association, Glasgow City Council, Passive House Institute, Edinburgh Napier University, Passivhaus Trust and Construction Scotland Innovation Centre and enjoys the patronage of the UNECE and Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction.
The project began with a student design competition, which received entries from all over Scotland and was ultimately won by a team from Robert Gordon University. Their design was inspired by the Scottish Highlands and incorporated design features and materials that would minimise the structures’ embodied carbon as well. The team has worked with Construction Scotland Innovation Centre to fabricate the boxes for display.
Edinburgh Napier’s Dr Julio Bros-Williamson, from the School of Engineering and the Built Environment, will be at today’s opening ceremony with the winning student team to talk about taking the design from concept to reality.
Currently, 35% of global energy consumption comes from the building sector alone. The operational stage is the largest contributor to carbon emissions, with most of this stemming from heating and cooling demand. Thus, the campaign asks people to think #EfficiencyFirst when tackling a new build or retrofitting project.