New research from our Energy House Labs team has taken Heat3D beyond the laboratory, testing an innovative approach to measuring building performance across 22 occupied homes and providing new insights into how buildings perform in real-world conditions.
The second Heat3D paper, published in Buildings MDPI’s special issue “The Dynamic In Situ Characterisation of Buildings”, takes the research beyond controlled testing in the University of Salford’s Energy House facility and into 22 occupied homes across two winters.
Led by Energy House Research Fellow Grant Henshaw, the research explores how Heat3D uses thermal imaging combined with an augmented reality model of a room to assess building performance during a single visit.
Traditional approaches to measuring heat transfer, such as using heat flux plates to calculate U-values in line with ISO 9869-1, typically require equipment to be installed on a wall for a minimum of 72 hours, often longer. The Heat3D approach aims to provide a faster method of assessing building performance.
The study compared Heat3D measurements against traditional heat flux plate methods, with the research finding strong agreement between the two approaches when calculating U-values using the timelapse method.
The research contributes to Sub-Task 4 of IEA EBC Annex 94, which focuses on breaking down whole-house heat transfer performance to better understand where performance gaps come from and the role of new measurement technologies.
Congratulations to Grant Henshaw and the Energy House Labs colleagues involved in this research, including William Swan, David Farmer and Ioannis Paraskevas, alongside wider research partners.