Summer 2023 Internship Case Study

William Rowntree (MEng Architectural Engineering student) worked closely with our Estates Department to produce an energy model of some of our older buildings on campus. These buildings were constructed in the 1970s, and have been subject to various renovations since then, including refitting with double-glazing and improvements to the radiator heating systems.

Will produced a detailed model using the specialist software ‘IES-VE', which included the construction of the building fabric, and the resulting thermal performance- and he ran simulations using weather models, comparing the simulated energy use for heating over the previous year, with the recorded and metered energy use from Estates for that same period. Once validated, this model allowed our Estates Department to explore the likely implications of improving wall insulation, and/or wall insulation, and/or triple-glazing windows, and several other strategies for refitting these buildings to meet our university Sustainability Strategy.