Building and community energy retrofit housing in Wales

This paper presents a modelling-led approach applied to low carbon innovative housing retrofit practice in Wales, UK. The research has investigated the implementation of combinations of existing and emerging low carbon technologies through a systems based approach to optimise the use of energy at the point of generation at both building and community scales. A performance prediction model has been developed to examine the effectiveness of different strategies in relation to energy and carbon reduction. Simulation results of individual building have shown, the retrofits with a net carbon reduction by up to 110% indicating a zero-energy or energy positive performance. Based on this, further investigation is carried out in retrofitting the whole community towards a ‘zero-energy’ or ‘energy positive’ community through a micro-grid connection and storage. The simulation results shows an energy positive performance can be achieved for community 1 under the proposed retrofit scenarios