How useful are building energy models for policy? A UK perspective

Energy demand models are central to the efforts of many governments to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. The lack of empirical research to ensure the appropriate use of predictions from the models has implications for building regulations and evaluating policy initiatives. We present three recent examples from the UK that highlight challenges: the discovery of a heat by-pass in party walls, trends in household gas consumption and the impact of condensing boilers, and inter-model variation in the non-domestic sector. We emphasise and contrast the approach of health sciences to support policy, and suggest that a far more systematic and integrated approach between empirical research, model development, and policy evaluation is needed.

How useful are building energy models for policy? A UK perspective. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth International IBPSA Conference (BS 2011). (pp. pp. 2477-2482). IBPSA: Sydney, Australia. 

Summerfield, A; Raslan, R; Lowe, R; Oreszczyn, T; (2011)