Mark Gillott

University of Nottingham | Notts · Department of Architecture and Built Environment

The energy sector, and buildings in particular, are one of the main contributors to climate change. Demand-Side Management (DSM) has the potential to realise energy savings on the demand as well as the supply side. However, the domestic sector still presents a major challenge due to its complex nature, one of which is the element of human interacti...

Electrification in energy supply-demand plays a critical role in domestic heating and road transport, delivering an electrified community to reduce carbon emissions. This solution, however, places a significant power demand increase on the distribution networks. To ensure the security of electricity supply, an efficient energy system and energy dem...

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) has been identified as a key technology to help reduc carbon emissions from the transport and energy sectors. However, the benefits of this technology are best achieved when multiple variables are considered in the process of charging and discharging an electric vehicle. These variables include vehicle behaviour, building ener...

The novel Pulse technique measures the building airtightness in a dynamic approach, involving a low-pressure pressurisation process, typically in 1–10Pa. It is known that the wind effect is one of the main sources of uncertainty for airtightness testing. The literature review revealed that the wind impact on measuring building airtightness has been...

In this paper, the authors examine how a community energy group in the Meadows area of Nottingham in the UK adopted a model of local energy generation and storage as a means of combatting climate change, improving energy efficiency, enhancing energy security, and reducing fuel poverty. By prioritising local needs and managing expectations, this app...

In this paper, the findings from a field study of the thermal performance of a low-energy dwelling are presented and discussed. The study aimed at evaluating the precision and accuracy of the QUB/e method in the field under UK climatic conditions. A series of in situ measurements were carried out in a low-energy detached house located in the Univer...

Vehicle-to-grid services make use of the aggregated capacity available from a fleet of vehicles to participate in energy markets, help integrate renewable energy in the grid and balance energy use. In this paper, the critical components of such a service are described in the context of a commercial service that is currently under development. Key a...

This paper describes a multi-energy system optimisation software, “Sustainable Energy Management System” (SEMS), developed as part of a Siemens, Greater London Authority and Royal Borough of Greenwich partnership in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and Imperial College London. The software was developed f...

Due to the success of the energy-efficient Passivhaus building envelope and its principles in regulating indoor thermal comfort in European climates, the potential implementation of it in other climates has been subjected to much attention in recent years. In this work, we adopted the hypothesis that slightly higher U-values of walls and floors tha...

A numerical parametric study is presented of a domestic thermal storage heat exchanger to explore the effect of highly localized positive temperature coefficient cylindrical heating elements in a phase change material (PCM) with conductive enhancement by open-pore metal foam. By using 90 L of commercially available Rubitherm RT70HC wax, 5.7 kWh of...

Defining common housing characteristics such as typology, floor areas, and occupancy rates can be challenging in many countries because of the prevalence of self-built and/or self-promoted accommodation. Yet, for researchers, designers, and policy makers, an understanding of these is crucial. Although housing represents more than one-third of the e...

In Brazil, the delivery of homes for low-inc ome households is dictated by costs rather than performance. Issues such as the impact of climate change, affordability of operational energy use, and lack of energy security are not taken into account, even though they can severely impact the occupants. In this work, the authors evaluated the thermal pe...

Building airtightness is a critical aspect for energy-efficient buildings as the energy performance of a building can be significantly reduced by poor airtightness. The Pulse technique has been regarded as a promising technology, measuring building airtightness at a low pressure of 4Pa. However, due to the rapid dynamic nature of the test, a freque...

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services utilise a population of electric vehicle batteries to provide the aggregated capacity required to participate in power and energy markets. Such participation relies on the prediction of available capacity to support the reliable delivery of agreed reserves at a future time. In this work real historical trip data from...

In this paper the findings from a long-term field study of the thermal performance of a circa 1950s dwelling are presented and discussed. The study aimed at evaluating the robustness of the QUB method in the field under UK climatic conditions. A series of 147 QUB tests were performed during the whole heating period (September 2016 – March 2017) in...

Airtightness refers to the amount of air leakage that paths through a building’s envelope. This uncontrolled exchange of air between inside and outside, either infiltration or exfiltration, may lead to thermal discomfort. Nevertheless, little or no attention has been given to airtightness in some countries including Brazil. Brazil has different cli...

The effect of various arrangements of airflow channel in a proposed storage heater based on copper foam soaked in a phase change material (PCM) is investigated. Different configurations of the air channel using a serpentine channel, as well as numbers of the air channels, are examined in a representative three-dimensional computer-based model (Ansy...

Despite Myanmar's alarming Climate Change Risk Index, no regard is given to the possible impacts of climate change in vernacular housing. Using empirical and simulated data sets, this paper investigates whether free-running dwellings in Myanmar can provide thermal comfort in the present and future climate scenarios based on wet-bulb and heat-index...

The effect of various arrangements of airflow channel in a proposed storage heater based on copper foam soaked in a phase change material (PCM) is investigated. Different configurations of the air channel using a serpentine channel, as well as numbers of the air channels, are examined in a representative three-dimensional computer-based model (Ansy...

As an important indicator of construction quality and envelope integrity of buildings, airtightness is responsible for a considerable amount of energy losses associated with infiltration. It is crucial to understand building airtightness during construction and retrofitting to achieve a suitable envelope airtightness which is essential for obtainin...

The integration of vernacular strategies in Myanmar housing seems to have remained remarkably resilient and is still the norm even in modern dwellings. However, no regard is given to the possible impact of climate change. Using one-year monitored indoor and outdoor thermal environment data, typical and a morphed weather data representing future cli...

Myanmar’s territory mostly experiences tropical monsoon climate, where temperatures are normally not extreme, but humidity can increase discomfort. In response, vernacular architecture strategies have evolved to deal with excess heat and humidity. One of the most prominent of these strategies is the use of high multistage roofs with ventilation. Ov...

‘Community Energy’ refers to people working together to reduce and manage energy use and increase and support local energy generation. It has the potential to support the infrastructural, social and cultural changes needed to reduce the impact of climate change and increase energy security. The core part of community energy initiatives is people; t...

Vehicle-to-grid services draw power or curtail demand from electric vehicles when they are connected to a compatible charging station. In this paper, we investigated automated machine learning for predicting when vehicles are likely to make such a connection. Using historical data collected from a vehicle tracking service, we assessed the technique...

Abstract The electric vehicles (EV) market is projected to continue its rapid growth, which will profoundly impact the demand on the electricity network requiring costly network reinforcements unless EV charging is properly managed. However, as well as importing electricity from the grid, EVs also have the potential to export electricity through ve...

The objective of this numerical study is to develop a latent heat storage (LHS) air heater in both charging and discharging processes to find the geometrical and operating conditions for dwelling space heating. The aim of the storage heater is to provide a uniform output temperature according to the required heating load of a typical room in the re...

Tropical weather is characterized by high humidity, high temperature, and intense solar insolation; therefore, traditional tropical housing is predominantly dependent on natural ventilation and passive cooling for thermal comfort. In the literature and practice, however, there is a gap of knowledge on Myanmar vernacular housing, specifically with r...

The paper reviews literature and provides a critical reflection on the suitability of using a guided strategy to address wider issues of sustainability of an existing built facility in hot dry climate of Nigeria. Assessment include building form/shape, passive cooling techniques, thermal comfort and application of valid building performance simulat...

This article was presented at the IAQVEC 2019 (10th International Conference on indoor air quality, ventilation and energy conservation in buildings). A full (and extended) paper of this paper (A review of traditional multistage roofs design and performance in vernacular buildings in Myanmar) can be viewed in the Sustainable Cities and Society Jou...

This article was presented at the IAQVEC 2019 (10th International Conference on indoor air quality, ventilation and energy conservation in buildings). A full (and extended) paper of this paper (A review of traditional multistage roofs design and performance in vernacular buildings in Myanmar) can be viewed in the Sustainable Cities and Society Jou...

Across different territories there are various normative models for assessing energy demand of domestic dwellings, which use simplified approaches to account for the heat loss due to the air infiltration of a building. For instance, the United Kingdom uses a dwelling energy model, known as the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP), and this utilises...

Buildings represent approximately 40% of global energy demand and heat loss induced by uncontrolled air leakage through the building fabric can represent up to one third of the heating load in a building. This leakage of air at ambient pressure levels, is known as air infiltration and can be measured by tracer gas means, however, the method is disr...

Building airtightness is a critical aspect for energy-efficient buildings as energy performance of a building can be reduced significantly by poor airtightness. The Pulse technique has been regarded as a promising technology, which measures the building airtightness at a low pressure of 4Pa by rapidly releasing a 1.5-second pulse of air from a pres...

Requirements for measuring the building airtightness have been proposed and included by many countries for national regulations or energy-efficient programs to address the negative effect of poor airtightness on building energy performance, durability and indoor environment. The methods for measuring building airtightness have continuously improved...

This paper evaluates the discharging mechanism in a PCM (phase change material) to air heat exchanger for the purpose of space heating using a composite of copper foam and PCM. The composite system is modelled with both 2-D and 3-D computational fluid dynamics approach for different inlet air temperatures to consider the effect of room temperature...

This study numerically investigates the performance of the melting process for a PCM based heat storage system under the effect of different variables in a vertical container with a copper metal foam. Different cases were studied and compared including the effects of variable porosities and pore densities, non-equilibrium porous medium model, a mul...

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their Special Report on Global warming, it is clear that there is a need of a rapid change in all aspects of society to achieve limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The transport sector alone is currently responsible for 20.5% of the global emissions. Therefore, the transport sector is expl...

Air infiltration represents up to one third of the energy losses in a building. Air leakage is the parameter that has the biggest effect on air infiltration. Currently the Air Leakage Rate (ALR) is measured by means of a (de) pressurisation technique and is quoted at 50 Pa of pressure difference. Some research has shown that building air leakage oc...

Dramatic rising in the global energy demand has been noted, with its growth coming from the emerging economies, higher living standard and comfort levels. Research showed that building infiltration could account for 30-50% of energy consumption for space heating, including ventilation in a leaky house (i.e.10ach at 50Pa). Building airtightness is r...

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of enclosure size in latent heat thermal energy storage systems embedded in a porous medium for domestic usage of latent heat thermal energy storage heat exchangers. A 2-D rectangular enclosure is considered as the computational domain to study the heat transfer improvement for a phase change material...

The aim of this paper is to study the charging/discharging process in a Latent heat exchanger for the purpose of space heating by using a composite metal foam/PCM. The composite PCM-air system is modelled in a 3-D CFD approach for the purpose of 8h charging during the night and 16h discharging during the daytime using the non-equilibrium thermal mo...

A pulse pressurisation technique is developed and utilised for determining building leakage at low pressure, based on a “quasi-steady pulse” concept. The underlying principle of the technique is to subject the building envelope to a known volume change in a short period of time (typically 1.5 s). The resulting pressure pulse is recorded, from which...

This paper describes a technology platform for monitoring homes within a community energy scheme. A range of sensors was deployed to measure in-home environmental conditions, occupancy, electrical power, electrical energy, thermal energy, heating behaviour and boiler performance to better understand and predict energy consumption in individual home...

Project SCENIC (Smart Controlled Energy Networks Integrated in Communities) involves connecting properties at the University of Nottingham’s Creative Energy Homes site in a community scale, integrated heat and power network. The system will use distributed generation to develop the prosumer concept, where consumers are both buyers and sellers of en...

Community Energy' refers to people working together to reduce and manage energy use, and increase and support local energy generation. It can help promote the infrastructural, social and cultural changes we need to reduce the impact of climate change and increase energy security. The core part of community energy initiatives is people, and therefor...

Vernacular housing in tropical climates traditionally relies heavily on natural ventilation for comfort. However, global warming and climate change are threatening the efficacy of this technique. The study presented here explored two Myanmar housing types in the countries’ three climate zones, and fifteen different ventilation regimes aiming to pro...

Reducing building energy consumption is important to achieve sustainable development, as a result, there is a need to investigate better energy systems with well-designed management infrastructure. At the Creative Energy Homes, a low-temperature heat network with distributed generation links seven properties. The aim of the system is to investigate...

Air infiltration contributes to a heat loss typically representing up to one third of the heating demand of a building. The building airtightness, also quantified as air leakage, is the fundamental building property that impacts infiltration. The steady (de)pressurization method (blower door) is the widely accepted standard process for measuring bu...

The air infiltration of a building, which fundamentally depends on its airtightness, can be a significant contributor to its heat loss. It can also be affected by other factors such as external terrain, leakage distribution, sheltering factor and environmental conditions. The infiltration rate of a detached UK house was monitored for 2 months in ea...

This study investigates the impacts of the thermophysical properties of building envelopes for the present typical weather and predicted climate scenarios in Myanmar. The objective of this study is to work out the sensitivity of thermal performance of a model by varying levels of envelope u-value, solar absorptivity, and thermal emissivity of the r...

In the UK, the sustainability agenda for housebuilding is now over ten years old, dating from the 2006 launch of the Code for Sustainable Homes as the benchmark for the reduction of carbon emissions in all new housing. The government’s 2015 decision however, to dismantle the Code for Sustainable Homes and remove the 2016 Zero Carbon targets, has me...

Brazil faces a housing deficit of more than 5.5 million units and nearly 11 million existing homes present inadequate living conditions. In response, the Brazilian government launched in 2009 a mass social housing programme with a target of delivering 24 million new units for low-income households by 2022. Their standardised design is relatively ch...

The large price drop in solar PV and electrical batteries offer new opportunities for optimizing district energy plants, but requires a more complex daily operation of these plants. Solar PV production used locally by a ground source heat pump (GSHP) with a minimal use of the national grid is one opportunity. Even if, for the benefit of the GSHP, t...

The UK building stock, being amongst the oldest in the developed world, is also one of the least energy efficient and accounts for approximately 45% of UK carbon emission. Energy use from housing alone was responsible for 13% of total UK carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in 2015. Therefore, achieving the national target of an 80% reductio...

This study covers the setup and analysis of software designed to use personal mobile devices for localised occupancy detection. The need to detect occupants more accurately has been identified as an important route to designing building controls that cater building energy usage directly to occupant needs, potentially saving wasted energy and improv...

Community energy storage (CES) is becoming an attractive technological option to facilitate the use of distributed renewable energy generation, manage demand loads and decarbonise the residential sector. There is strong interest in understanding the techno-economic benefits of using CES systems, which energy storage technology is more suitable and...

A hydrogen community energy storage (H-CES) system including a PEM electrolyser, metal hydride tank and PEMFC unit was designed, built and tested for a low carbon community. The H-CES performs end user applications including PV energy time-shift and demand load shifting. The system proved to have good flexibility and capability for mid-term and lon...

Growing support to decarbonise energy systems together with increasing retail energy prices are converting self-generation into a more attractive energy supply option. At the consumption level, solar PV is the most widespread generation technology due to declining capital costs, modularity and easy maintenance. The intrinsic dependence of solar ene...

In this study, the effect of environmental conditions on plant operation was investigated for hydrogen refuelling stations with an external storage facility. Hydrogen storage pressure with respect to tank surface temperatures have been measured and used to create empirical equations for each tank showing the effect of surface temperature on the tan...

A novel method has been designed to obtain the optimum community energy storage (CES) systems for end user applications. The method evaluates the optimum performance (including the round trip efficiency and annual discharge), levelised cost (LCOES), the internal rate of return and the levelised value of suitable energy storage technologies. A compl...

The ever-increasing energy demand of the residential sector has required the adoption of tighter energy standards, aiming for high energy efficiency in dwellings. In Brazil, 24 million new residential buildings are planned to be delivered by 2022 through social housing programs, which could greatly impact on the country’s energy consumption. In an...

To meet the UK's decarbonization targets the introduction of novel integrated renewable energy generation, storage and demand management systems is required. In this paper the current role of fuel cells in the British domestic sector is discussed using simulation results of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system in a typical British single dwelling....

Almost one third of the UK's total energy is consumed by the domestic sector. Occupancy measurement could have the potential to save significant amounts of that energy, either instantly via a home automation system or retrospectively via post-occupancy evaluation. However, not many localisation technologies are applicable to a domestic environment....

Since its opening, the BASF prototype house at the Creative Energy Homes project has attracted significant attention due to the two main aspects of the design brief: energy efficiency and affordability. The house was built using modern methods of construction and incorporates a number of passive and active measures to achieve comfort. An evaluation...

Appropriate use of information and communications technology has the potential to greatly aid attempts to encourage energy efficient behavior in buildings. In this work, we investigate a system that combines detailed monitoring of energy use within domestic properties together with monitoring of the occupants use of space within those properties. T...

The generation capacity of an electricity network is usually significantly greater than typical demand in order to ensure peaks can be accommodated. Demand response techniques aim to smooth demand by modifying the time of end-users electricity consumption, which may reduce the required total generation capacity. These techniques will become increas...

The energy expended for conditioning buildings around the world is worryingly large and increasing every year. Currently, almost half of houses around the world use some type of energy-expensive conventional air-conditioning system. These systems are high emitters of gases such as carbon dioxide and so high contributors to climate change. Consequen...

Half of humanity now lives in cities and the cities of the world continue to expand. However, inappropriate design of buildings combined with heat island conditions in dense urban areas and the effects of climate change may result in unsuitable accommodation, which is inherently unsustainable.An underlying problem in the long term housing supply ha...

A great deal of literature has been published in recent years around the need to mitigate climate change and the building industry is already working to make buildings more energy efficient. However, some changes to our climate cannot be avoided so we will need to change the way we design, construct, refurbish and use buildings to adapt to the like...

Due to a number of reasons including the effects of climate change and a shift towards a more widespread use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) for housing development, overheating issues in British homes has become a greater concern in recent years. Some of the most important advantages of MMC are the reduced use of materials, reduced constru...

In order to create an electricity demand model for Demand Side Management (DSM) simulations it is important to accurately model the parameters which affect the quantity of electricity consumption. Domestic electricity use is highly dependent on the activities of the residents and their occupancy patterns. In this work a model for stochastically det...

Photovoltaic systems are now widely used technologies that are utilised to enhance a building's energy performance. Among the photovoltaic cell types, semitransparent devices have recently found a broader field of application thanks to legislative actions that promote building integrated photovoltaic systems (BIPV).This paper presents a review of s...

This work presents the results of simulation of two different energy storage technologies for a grid-connected single house in Nottingham United Kingdom where three people live. The house has a monocristalline silicon photovoltaic installation of 4.5 kWp at a slope of 60 degree to improve panels’ winter performance. A stochastic model which takes a...

With increasing uptake of distributed generation into existing electrical network and the considering the importance of reducing the CO2 emission there is more emphasis on incorporating Demand Side Management (DSM) to the electricity network in the UK. Having a reliable model of domestic electricity demand is required in order to simulate any energ...

Since its opening in January 2008, the BASF House, part of the Creative Energy Homes (CEH) project, has attracted significant attention from the public and the scientific community. The two main aspects of the design brief were energy efficiency and affordability, hence the interest in the project. The house was built to achieve Code for Sustainabl...