Improving the thermal performance and comfort of The Old Coach Station in Faversham

Case

Funding body: e-INET (2014)
Principal Investigator: Dr Richard Watkins
Project partner: South East Coachworks
Research assistant: Mohamed Mahdy

Summary

The project investigated potential improvements to the thermal performance and thermal comfort requirements of the Old Coach Station in Faversham. Data on the construction of the building from available plans and a site visit have been used to create a computer representation of the building inside the building simulation software Designbuilder.

Available fuel bill data was compared with the model’s energy and thermal comfort predictions and assumptions, which was then adjusted to more closely match the actual (historical) data. This base model helped to identify where heat is being lost most in the heating season, and where heat is being gained most in the summer, and causing over-heating. A series of improvements were tested on the building envelope as well as renewable energy options, particularly the potential for electricity generation from the south facing roof, and/or solar hot water heating. The improvements in performance were then compared with approximate costs so that the proposed improvements could be ranked in terms of pay-back time/capital cost.