Technical papers exploring overheating criteria in homes, heat pump demand response, whole life carbon in supermarket construction, and rapid assessment of air quality at events have been recognised with awards at the President’s Awards dinner.
The winning technical papers featured in the CIBSE research journal, Building Services Engineering Research & Technology (BSER&T), and were selected based on various criteria including research impact and reach, international interest and relevance.
The Dufton Silver Medal is awarded for a paper relating to fundamental research in building services and technology. The Carter Bronze Medal is for the most highly rated paper, the Napier Shaw Bronze Medals awarded for most highly rated research paper, and the Barker Silver awarded for an outstanding paper on application and development.
The Barker Silver Medal was awarded to Jenny Crawley, Clifford Elwell, Adria Martin-Vilaseca, Michelle Shipworth, Jez Wingfield, and Zachary Gill, for their paper: Demand response with heat pumps: Practical implementation of three different control options.
Their research compared three early adopters of heat pump demand response in occupied homes and aimed to reduce heat pump electricity consumption during the same peak period, but each used a different control strategy (for example lowered air temperature setpoints, or lowered flow temperatures). Each method achieved an electricity reduction during the peak period, ranging from 56-90%.
The Carter Bronze Medal was awarded to Ali Bahadori-Jahromi, Agha Hasan, Anastasia Mylona, Augustine Blay-Armah, Golnaz Mohebbi, and Mark Barthorpe, with their paper: Comparative analysis of the whole life carbon of three construction methods of a UK-based supermarket.
Their paper compared the whole life carbon of three construction methods for the same design of a UK based supermarket. Using cradle-to-grave assessment they explored the relationship between embodied carbon and operational carbon and provided a framework for future assessment of the whole-life carbon of supermarket buildings.
The Dufton Silver Medal was awarded to Filipa Adzic, Malcolm Cook, Murat Mustafa, Elizabeth Abigail Hathway, Liora Malki-Epshtein, Ben M Roberts, and Christopher Iddon. Their paper was titled: Measurement and rapid assessment of indoor air quality at mass gathering events to assess ventilation performance and reduce aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
It looked at 10 venues in the UK which were monitored with C0₂ sensors during 90 eventsand developed an IAQ index based on C0₂ concentration. Good ventilation was observed in 90% of spaces monitored. The paper defines a methodology for measurement and rapid assessment of IAQ during occupancy at live events, that can be implemented by venue managers.
The Napier Shaw Bronze Medal was awarded to Kevin J Lomas, Matthew Li, for their paper: An overheating criterion for bedrooms in temperate climates: Derivation and application.
Their paper considered the current UK bedroom threshold of 26°C for overheating, which is based on a small 45-year-old study. By reviewing temperatures measured in 591 bedrooms during the summer of 2018, and assuming comfort can be achieved at up to 29°C, they propose a new overheating criterion with thresholds between 26 and 29°C, which could underpin overheating regulations Part O for the design of new dwellings in England.
The awards were presented at the CIBSE President’s Awards Dinner in October.
CIBSE members can read the BSER&T and LR&T Journals for free at www.cibse.org/knowledge.