Red Kite House Wallingford, UK

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Posting Date | 14 January 2010

Acronym | AdVent 18

Country | United Kingdom

Geographic Coverage | International

Theme | General on energy efficiency in buildings

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Topic(s) | Thermal conditions, air quality, acoustics in buildings, Renewable energy sources and systems, including biomass, Building components incl. windows and solar control systems, building constructions, Heating and hot water systems in buildings, Air-conditioning, ventilation, air infiltration, low energy cooling, Artificial lighting and daylight for buildings, Control strategies, energy management, intelligent buildings

Author(s) information |

Name:

M Kolokotroni

Name:

P Warren

Target Group | Building professionals

Source of funding |

AdVent | Natural ventilation | PV | solar | night ventilation

Abstract | Red Kite House is a three-storey office building in South East England with a total floor area of 2 500 m². Each floor is mainly open-plan office area with some meeting and other rooms. Figure 1 shows a plan view of the first floor. The total number of staff is about 250. Some staff are permanently stationed in the building; others spent a proportion of their working time away from the office and are only intermittently present, using a ‘hot-desking’ arrangement. Principal occupied hours are week days between 08.00 and 18.00

Illustrations |

Web URL(s) of the case | http://www.buildingadvent.com

Lessons learnt | Occupants indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the indoor environment but designers of future buildings using the same principles might consider including monitors within the BEM system to allow windows to be opened if carbon dioxide concentrations reached a set limit. Control algorithms need to be carefully designed where window opening is controlled by several variables (such as temperature, rain, carbon dioxide) to ensure optimal operation. With the increasing use of computing equipment in offices, it is useful, in order to manage energy use, to meter lighting and other building related electricity consumption separately from other uses. Night-time natural ventilation in common with a thermal sink provided by exposed concrete ceilings limits peak temperatures in summer. The combination of brise-soleil with solar PV cells both limits unwanted solar gains in summer and provides a useful supply of renewable electricity. The deliberately limited building width, combined with open plan design, and orientation provide for efficient natural ventilation and day-lighting both of which increase the satisfaction of occupants.

Additional documents |