This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This paper presents one of the first national scale studies of summertime temperatures in English dwellings. Living room and bedroom temperatures were recorded in 207 homes across the England during the cool summer of 2007. Data was also collected by face-to-face household interviews. Fourteen homes (7%) were observed to be heated for part or all of the analysis period (July to August). Based on the BSEN15251 adaptive thermal comfort model, the 193 free-running dwellings would, in general, to be considered as uncomfortably cool. Over 72% of living rooms and bedrooms had more than 5% of hours below the BSEN15251 Cat II lower threshold, with over 50% having more than 5% of hours below the Cat III threshold. Detached homes and those built before 1919 were significantly cooler (p<0.05) than those of other type and age. Static criteria revealed that, despite the cool summer, 21% of the bedrooms had more than 5% of night time hours over 26ºC; which is a recommended upper limit for bedrooms. The bedrooms of modern homes, i.e. those built after 1990 or with cavity walls, were significantly warmer (p<0.05). The bedrooms in homes built prior to 1919 were significantly cooler (p<0.05). The living rooms of flats were significantly warmer than the living rooms in the other dwelling types (p<0.05).The incidence of warm bedrooms in modern homes, even during a cool summer, is of concern, especially as there is a strong trend towards even better insulation standards in new homes and the energy-efficient retrofitting of existing homes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/A matched pair of 1930s semi-detached houses, in original condition and un-refurbished in terms of energy efficiency, were employed to measure the energy savings that might result from the use of zonal space heating control (ZC). The houses were adjoined and had the same synthetic, yet realistic, occupancy schedule, the same new central heating system, and were exposed to the same weather conditions. In one house the space heating was controlled conventionally (CC) according to minimum requirements in UK Building Regulation Part L1B for existing dwellings, whereas in the other house ZC was used to heat the rooms only when they were ‘occupied’. Over an 8-week winter test period, the house with ZC used 11.8% less gas despite 2.4 percentage points drop in average daily boiler efficiency. Although zonal control reduced the mean indoor air temperature of the whole house by 0.6 °C, it did not reduce the average air temperature in rooms during the hours of active ‘occupancy’. Normalization and extrapolation of the results shows that, compared to CC, ZC could reduce annual gas demand for space heating by 12% in most regions of the UK, and that ZC would be a more effective energy efficiency measure in homes in the cooler, more northerly regions of the UK

The production of conventional construction materials such as concrete, cement and bricks, has contributed significantly to the high environmental footprint associated with the construction industry. Moreover, there is a global push to deviate from the linear take-use-dispose model to a circular economy model, which incorporates upcycling and reuse of materials. This paper reviews the application of agricultural and plastic wastes, in construction, exploring the performance of the resulting component using five key parameters: compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, density and thermal conductivity. The study showed that the compressive, tensile and flexural strengths can be increased slightly by increasing waste content; however, this only occurs in a narrow range after which an increase in waste content reduces the mechanical strength. This reduced strength can be attributed to a weaker bond resulting from the increased waste content. It also suggests that components may not directly benefit from the mechanical properties of waste materials. The waste materials resulted in a lower density which has implications for lightweight applications. Similarly, both waste materials were observed to improve the thermal insulation properties which is an advantage for improving thermal comfort in buildings. Despite the reduction in mechanical strength, it was observed that components with waste materials can be used for non-structural elements, thereby reducing the quantity and cost of new materials to be used. The application of these wastes in construction offers a pathway to reducing the environmental impact of construction, avoiding reliance on landfills for waste disposal and reducing construction costs. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT