Low Carbon Adaptable Homes

Research Pillar: Healthy and Inclusive Places

Project Name/Title/Acronym: Low Carbon Adapatable Places

Funding Body: Phase 1: Glenbeigh Construction (client) and Phase 2: Enterprise Ireland

Project Partners: TrinityHaus and Glenbeigh Construction

Project Timeframe: 2011

Project Description:

TrinityHaus were commissioned to design a low carbon adaptable house for Glenbeigh Construction. Planning permission was granted with construction starting in November 2010. The demonstration house was occupied by a family for 24 months and monitored for energy consumption as a living laboratory. The project comprises of the design, construction, occupation, and monitoring of a low carbon, adaptable home. The dwelling has built-in adaptable features to facilitate flexibility, phased expansion or contraction and the future integration of new renewable technologies. The design also enabled compliance with potential future changes to the building regulations. Furthermore, the design considers the embodied energy of the materials used and the overall life cycle assessment of the dwelling.

This project covered issues around heating and energy conservation and thus linked with ‘Sustainable and climate responsive communities’.

Internationally, it supports various UN Sustainable Development Goals as indicated below:

Publications:

• Kinnane O, Grey T, and Dyer M. (2016). Adaptable housing design for climate change adaption, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering Sustainability. (See here)
• Collins R, Grey T, Dyer M, Shiel P. (2010). The advantage of adaptable buildings with respect to the energy consumption over the life of the building, Sustainable Building Affordable to All, Portugal 17th - 19th March, 2010.
• Kinnane O.P., Grey T, and Dyer M. (2012). A comprehensive monitoring system for assessment of a prototype house. Accepted for publication in: Proceedings in Sustainable in Energy and Buildings SEB’12, Stockholm.
• Reynolds J, Kinnane O.P., Grey T, and Dyer M. (2013). Passive energy storage potential of a novel prototype home. Proceedings of International Conference on Sustainable Energy Storage in Buildings, 2013, Dublin, Ireland.
• Kinnane O, Grey T, and Dyer M. (2013). "A Comprehensive Monitoring System to Assess the Performance of a Prototype House" in Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, A. Hakansson, M. Höjer, R.J. Howlette and L.C. Jain, Eds. Springer Berline Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 373 - 379.

Presentations

• Kinnane O.P., Grey T, and Dyer M. (2012). A comprehenive monitoring system to assess the performance of a prototype house. In: Proceedings in Sustainability in Energy and Buildings SEB12, Stockholm.

Contact details – for more information contact Tom Grey, tom.grey@tcd.ie