Conference article

Incorporating Climate Change Projections into Building design: A Qualitative Study

Mehreen Gul
Urban Energy Research Group, School of Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

Gill Menzies
Urban Energy Research Group, School of Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

Phil Banfill
Urban Energy Research Group, School of Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

Download articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3384/ecp11057604

Published in: World Renewable Energy Congress - Sweden; 8-13 May; 2011; Linköping; Sweden

Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 57:5, p. 604-611

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Published: 2011-11-03

ISBN: 978-91-7393-070-3

ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)

Abstract

The UK climate of the future cannot be predicted with certainty and this is reflected in the current UK Climate Projections (UKCP09); which are probabilistic in nature. It is anticipated that the conventional approaches to building design will not adequately represent the effects of future warming and therefore guidance is required to overcome future overheating of a building by making it thermally more comfortable. The study presented here relates to a qualitative investigation and aims to draw out the needs and references of building design professionals to develop an easy to use formulation for adequately sizing Heating; Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) plants. It will serve as an interface between professional building services engineers and the research team working on probabilistic weather data and a building simulation package. This investigation deploys a qualitative research approach of Methodological triangulation; which refers to the use of more than one method for gathering data. Herein; the three strands of research that will be used are the questionnaire; semi structured interviews and focus groups. This work is ongoing and the analysis is due for completion in 2012. This paper focuses mainly on some of the initial findings of the qualitative approaches mentioned above for domestic buildings only.

Keywords

Qualitative investigation; Future climates; Focus groups

References

[1] Good Building Guide 63 (GBG 63); Climate change: Impact on building design and construction. BRE press 2004; pp. 1-6

[2] P.D. Jones et al.; UK Climate Projections science report: Projections of future daily climate for the UK from the Weather Generator; available from http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk

[3] Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate Network (ACN); Programme website http://www.ukcip-arcc.org.uk/content/view/605/519/

[4] S. Patidar; D.P. Jenkins; G. Gibson; and P.F.G. Banfill; Statistical techniques to emulate dynamic building simulations for overheating analyses in future probabilistic climates; Journal of Building Performance Simulation; In Press; 2010

[5] A. Bryman; Quantity and Quality in Social Research. Routledge; 1988; pp. 131-134

[6] D. W.Stewart; P.N. Shamdasani and D.W.Rook; Focus groups Theory and Practice; 2nd Edition; Sage; 2007; pp. 1-16

[7] R. J. Bowden; Self-Selection Biases in Correlational Studies Based on Questionnaires; Psychometrika 51; 2; 2010; 1986; pp. 313-325

[8] W. Jones and J. Lang; Sample composition bias and response bias in a mail survey: A comparison of inducement methods. Journal of Marketing Research 17; 1980 pp. 69-76

[9] R.Barbour; Doing Focus groups; First Edition; Sage; 2007; pp. 57-60

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