In 2019 the Active Building Centre, Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) was born through Innovate UK’s Transforming Construction Challenge. Since then a small team has focussed on real world projects embedding the active building principles first developed by Swansea University. In October 2022 we launched our ABC Blueprint to share our learnings and knowledge to…
By Dan Cook, Chief Executive of the Active Building Centre Active Building Centre was created in 2019 as part of UKRI’s Transforming Construction Challenge. The aim was to build on the academic work of Swansea University ,and others, and to use the active building principles and apply them to real world projects. That is exactly…
Energy Systems Catapult is to be the new home for key parts of the Active Building Centre (ABC) – accelerating efforts to decarbonise the built environment. WHERE THIS ALL BEGAN The ABC was set-up in 2019, under the Government’s ***Transforming Construction Challenge. With the initial R&D funding phase as part of the UK Government’s Transforming…
As ABC’s mission is set to be boosted by joining Energy Systems Catapult, ABC’s Head of Corporate Affairs Chris Brierley caught up with ESC’s Chief Executive Officer Guy Newey … CHRIS: Guy, what attracted you to continuing the Active Building Centre mission around decarbonising the built environment ? GUY: For me, the challenge of…
This insight paper summarises ABC’s programme to date of testing the performance of domestic heat pumps for space heating. It includes an assessment of commercially available heat pumps and the development of thermal modelling of CO2 heat pumps and their building application, including the application of thermal storage. The paper also describes how heat pump design incorporating new technology to increase performance efficiency can be tested using ABC’s laboratory testing facility.
Whilst media reports around replacing gas boilers usually point toward air source heat pumps as the natural replacement, there is actually an array of other tech out there, but the problem is lack of awareness and knowledge.
In this insight paper, Dr Kerry Mashford OBE explains how ABC has worked to integrate the energy systems required for an active building. Following on from the publication of ABC’s Blueprint, this document focuses on integration as a principle to consider at all stages of the energy hierarchy pyramid. Dr Mashford takes us through the reasons for integration and how this has been achieved in practice by ABC in some of their projects.
Could Infrared be the answer to your low energy cost solution ? Join ABC as we discuss the pros and cons of the technology with leading experts.
Start asking yourself and your peers and your leaders and boards in your organsiation, business or public sector body. What action will you actually be taking and building into your next business or operations plan to deliver improvements in Comfort, Carbon and Cost ?
Retrofitting our existing buildings stock for energy efficiency has been the cinderella of climate change policy – notably ignored in the 2006 Zero Carbon (new) Homes policy and a barely helpful backstop U value approach in the Building Regulations until this year.
Since 2019 ABC has worked with lots of organisations in the #netzero space. So with the pressure on to reach #netzero by 2050 what are the challenges facing the s
This week, ABC brought together leaders from the construction and wider #netzero sectors to discuss the challenges facing suppliers and the supply chain in the current challenging market environment, as well as how they can work together to overcome the bigger issue of decarbonising our housing stock (and other buildings).
As the Active Building Centre prepares to host a summit on the construction supply chain, ABC Industrial Engagement Lead Dr Tony Eccott takes a look at some of the issues and how the ABC is addressing them. Our supply chains are under pressure like never before. The coronavirus pandemic, labour shortages, the energy crisis and…
by Chris Brierley, Head of Corporate Affairs at the Active Building Centre The cost-of-living crisis has loomed large in the collective psyche of the British public for many months now. Most economists had already priced in soaring inflation, resulting from the post-Covid unlocking and the lift in the energy price cap, at the start of…
The Queen’s Speech, laudably, restated the need for a transition to “cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy”. What we have seen last week is merely a start towards that aim – not the complete solution which the Government seems to think it is. As well as the power plants and new technologies which ministers are right to invest in, they would do well to start their thinking much closer to people’s homes and workplaces.
By Chris Brierley, Head of Communications, Active Building Centre The Government is committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. You doubtless already know this. Everyone does. It’s an inescapable fact of public life these days. We need to reach net zero to have any hope of limiting global temperature rises, and every department…
By Lee Chambers, Chief Commercial Officer, Active Building Centre Following the ambitious targets the government set at COP26 last year, decarbonising buildings will be central to meeting our Net Zero goals. There are over 27 million homes in the UK, and 60% of their energy is used for heating. With demand for housing showing no…
At our site in Berkeley, we act as a test bed, with our model homes and a community heat network demonstrating which technologies work and which don’t, doing the difficult work of trial and error for construction companies. We can bring together the best technologies and experts from all over the world to see what works in a live, real world environment.
BREAKING NEWS ABC HAS A NEW CHIEF
Last week the government announced a tenfold expansion in chargepoints by 2030 as ministers look to “drive the EV revolution”. Here’s some points from us: Charge points are still too few and far between, and by recognising this and taking action, last week’s announcement expanding the UK’s Electric Vehicle charging network to around 300,000 public…
‘We welcome the Chancellor’s announcement in today’s Spring Statement that VAT will be cut to zero for energy-saving devices such as solar panels, heat pumps and insulation. It is vital that the Government does everything it can to encourage homeowners to invest in transforming the way their homes are powered and heated.
On 10th March, Lee Chambers, ABC’s Chief Commercial Officer, took part in an international panel discussion on the role of 3D digital twins and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) on the road to the decarbonisation of buildings. This was part of IIoT World’s Smart Cities & Buildings Day, which brought together subject matter experts,…
With unprecedented challenges currently facing global energy supplies, there has never been a more apposite time to be discussing upgrades to our national grid infrastructure. Any updates must guarantee that we can supply enough power to fuel our activities, buildings and vehicles safely and sustainably, both now and into the future.
Even without a dramatic leap forward in technology, much of the kit we will use in the zero-carbon houses of the future is already available off the shelf. The challenge is to integrate these in the optimal configuration. Educating councils, developers, housebuilders and homeowners is therefore critically important.
For us at ABC, we have been clear it’s always been about real world, real projects, real people, and that has given us a unique position in the transforming construction arena.
By Andrew Perry, Chief Operating Officer at the Active Building Centre Wales has been at the vanguard of the response to the climate emergency – both within the UK and around the world. That has been apparent to us at the Active Building Centre since even before our organisation came into being in 2018. We…
The challenge of climate change demands action; in the built environment more than any other sector. But it requires that action understands what works, the networks and interfaces between different built assets, and the complex system of systems that encompasses the places where we live and work, and how to adapt this for a better future.
ABC’s mission is underpinned by that simple question. We can work for the buildings – why can’t we make buildings work for us?
s which councils and housing authorities have control over in the fight against climate change is their building stock. By building new housing to net-zero standards, they can prevent future emissions and, crucially, avoid the future costs and upheaval of retrofitting these buildings.
A Question & Answer session with our resident expert Dr Jo Atkinson Q: Starting simply, what do we mean by ‘retrofitting’? What is the benefit? A: Dr Jo Atkinson: Retrofitting is about upgrading existing buildings with three main, linked aims: to improve occupants’ comfort, futureproof the buildings, and reduce energy costs. We do this mainly…
The ABC was founded to bridge the divide between public demand for greener building methods and the construction industry’s inertia in exploring and adopting these. Because of the groundswell in popular support, on the one hand, and the hard evidence that we’ve gathered for what does and doesn’t work, on the other, that gulf has never felt narrower than it does as 2021 draws to a close.
iance? The question is why wouldn’t we! Says ABC’s Chris Brierley
Every baker knows you can’t sprinkle yeast onto dough at the end of the process and expect the bread to rise. It needs to be there from the start, fully incorporated. Design thinking is no different to yeast.
A blog by Siobhan Baillie, Stroud MP COP26 might be over but the scale of the task is now clearer than ever. It will take all of us to pull together for the common good to protect our planet and its people. Last month ahead of COP26, I was proud that my constituency hosted a…
By Hywel Lloyd, ABC’s Government Engagement Lead With the recent close of COP26, the UN’s flagship two-week climate change conference in Glasgow, following shortly after the ABC’s COP Gloucestershire summit and the COP Cymru event series in Wales, we thought it was time to look back on our experiences of all three events, where they…
By Chris Brierley, Communications & Engagement Lead @ABC Today is Built Environment Day at the COP26 summit, with industry and political leaders coming together to address the issue which we are working on more than any other. The built environment will have a central role to play in dealing with the climate crisis. Building operations…
The construction industry is changing #netzero, but is it quick enough ?
The Question: How can smart, flexible buildings help us reach net zero? The Active Building Centre hosted a panel at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow this week, contributing to the global conversation about how to reshape our world by bringing together industry and government experts to ask how smart, flexible buildings can help us reach…