Salford Energy House
Bowmer & Kirkland has won an £11.8m contract to build a new buildings research facility, called Energy House 2.0, for the University of Salford.
The £16m facility will investigate the future of housing, looking the potential of offsite construction smart homes and energy usage.
It will contain two environmental chambers with the ability to achieve temperatures between -20C and 40C and simulated wind, rain, snow and solar light. The university claims that it will be able to replicate the environmental conditions by 95% of the world’s population.
The facility will allow researches to find ways of reducing CO2 emissions from housing to “acceptable limits”, using new types of building fabric, smart control systems and meters, energy modelling and measurement.
The facility will build on the work the university has already carried out at the Salford Energy House, which contains a typical Salford house, following a 1919 design, within a fully environmentally controllable chamber to allow testing of energy efficient technology.
Commenting on the construction of Energy House 2.0, professor Will Swan, director of Energy House Laboratories, said: “Once work is complete our facilities will be globally significant. We have undertaken significant work in the UK over the last 10 years, but these new facilities give us major opportunities to work with international partners on major global challenges.
“This facility for whole buildings testing and research and will further the development of energy efficient technologies for the built environment. From a UK perspective we are very much driven by the Industrial Strategy and will be working with partners from industry to support the delivery of a low-carbon built environment.”
The new facility coming on stream in 2021. The project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund with other cash coming from the Office for Students. Aecom is providing project management and cost management services.
