The University of Bath is inviting applications for the following PhD project, which is expected to commence in early 2022.
Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Natarajan - [Email Address Removed]
Funding is available to candidates who qualify for ‘Home’ fee status. Following the UK’s departure from the European Union, the rules governing fee status have changed and, therefore, candidates from the EU/EEA are advised to check their eligibility before applying. If you are unsure whether you qualify for Home tuition fee status, please see our guide to understanding your tuition fee status, and the UKCISA guidance.
Project
The Passivhaus standard is rapidly gaining in popularity as a high-quality low-energy building standard, with several UK local authorities adopting it as the default low-energy standard for dwellings. A substantial body of research has now shown that the at-scale and as-built operational performance of the standard is excellent. For example, we now know from the University of Bath’s research on nearly 100 UK Passivhaus dwellings that, unlike homes built to other standards, which often exceed their predicted energy consumption by around a factor of two, homes built to the Passivhaus on average consume less space heating energy than the 15 kWh/m2/annum predicted by the standard. Data from the same cohort also showed that Passivhaus dwellings do not seem to overheat at a rate greater than the typical existing or new build UK stock.
However, there is growing concern that as the operational energy, and hence carbon, of buildings falls, the absolute and relative contribution of embodied carbon will rise. Hence, there is a need to look at the whole-life carbon footprint of Passivhaus buildings to ensure true sustainability. A significant challenge here is the inherent uncertainty in the estimates of embodied energy and carbon as not all products have quality-assured data available, for example in the form of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) produced to EN 15804. Hence, the key research question investigated by this project will be “Do buildings designed to the Passivhaus standard produce less whole-life carbon compared to those designed to other standards?”
Methods: Detailed operational and embodied carbon modelling to undertake pairwise comparisons of Passivhaus and non-Passivhaus buildings for both domestic and non-domestic buildings in the UK. This will involve (a) a variety of material ensembles and building strategies using the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) (b) estimates for current and future climate using average and extreme weather data developed at Bath for the UK at 5-km spatial resolution and (c) uncertainty analysis to determine to what extent the known and unknown data uncertainties will affect true performance.
Applicant Requirements
Applicants should hold, or expect to receive, an undergraduate Masters first class degree or MSc distinction (or non-UK equivalent). English language entry requirements must be met at the time of application to be considered for funding.
How to apply
Formal applications should be made via the University of Bath’s online application form for a PhD in Architecture. Please ensure that you state the full project title and lead supervisor name on the application form.
More information about applying for a PhD at Bath may be found here.
Keywords
Life Cycle Analysis; Life cycle assessment; Whole-life carbon; Embodied carbon; Passivhaus; Zero-carbon buildings; Dynamic Energy Modelling; Architecture; Built Environment; Civil Engineering