Papers and presentations exploring net zero cooling, building performance evaluation, the heat network landscape, and heat pump retrofits will feature at the 2024 CIBSE Technical Symposium.
The symposium’s theme is ‘Fit for 2050 – Delivering buildings and defining performance for a net zero built environment’, and it takes place at the Welsh School of Architecture, in Cardiff, from 11-12 April.
It will focus on redefining building performance in the light of social, environmental and digital change, and will feature a range of peer-reviewed papers and presentations. These will outline developments in practice, technology and policy, and showcase the latest guidance for building services engineers.
Professor Graeme Maidment, of London South Bank University, will be the keynote speaker, and will highlight the opportunities for net zero-compatible cooling strategies across the building stock. Cooling activities represented about 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the UK in 2021, contributing to approximately 19% of total UK electricity consumption and about 1.6% of petrol/diesel consumption.
Delegates will also hear a paper titled Applying natural language processing to sentiment analysis in building performance evaluation, by Sahar Nava, from University College London. She explores the use of natural language processing, a subset of artificial intelligence, within post-occupancy surveys and compares this with human interpretation.
Phil Jones’ paper, Huge changes to regulate UK heat networks – including technical standards, zoning and consumer protection, is a review that indicates the trajectory for heat networks for the industry.
Tony Day’s paper, A new simplified energy analysis model for residential heat pump retrofits, is a preliminary analysis designed to show the method under consideration (a TM41 degree-day approach), and how this can be used to assess building characterisation and predict a future heat pump retrofit performance, and as a method of monitoring installed performance.
The full symposium programme will be available in early March. To book your place, visit www.cibse.org/symposium.