Responsible Retrofit Measures for Traditional Listed Dwellings: An Energy Simulation Validation Strategy

Energy and carbon retrofitting of traditional listed dwellings (TLDs) in the South-East England is much required but faces a multi-faceted and complex suite of issues and problems. A research project has been designed to specifically address those problems. It utilises a mixed methods approach centred around multi-staged dynamic Building Energy Simulations (BES) for selected case studies of TLDs in Brighton and Hove. The cases have been surveyed, modelled and simulated to assess their current energy performance and thermal behaviour as well as potential benefits of responsive and effective retrofit interventions. The use of simulation implies the need for a thorough validation strategy to ensure that the data generation and analysis tool is reliable, valid and replicable in similar or identical contexts. Case studies research allows for an empirical validation, based on the calibration of simulated models with monitored data. For this ongoing research project, a calibration strategy has been devised, based on the findings of a critical review of literature. It utilises energy consumption data as well as temperature and relative humidity data for each case study.

Providing a brief overview of the methodological framework of the research, the paper describes in detail the approach utilised to ensure that the datasets, collected and generated using different sources, corroborate each other. Such validation process aims to generate virtual models capable of accurately representing the real case studies in their status-quo energy performance and thermal behaviour. The calibrated models can therefore be reliably used during the following stages of analysis when the impacts of selected retrofit interventions are to be evaluated.