An investigation into the energy performance of school buildings refurbished through Salix funding

Schools in the UK are part of the existing stock of buildings whose operational carbon must be reduced for the government to meet its objective of reducing carbon emissions by up to 80% of their 1990 levels by 2050. State funding for refurbishment is the most feasible option for public schools using two routes: Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) which is restricted to improving the physical aspects (e.g. expansion) of school facilities; and the Salix Energy Efficiency Fund (SEEF) aimed at energy/equipment retrofit measures. Although the use of BIM technology (underpinned by the government softlanding (GSL) framework) as well as the use of energy modelling and simulation tools have become integral to making buildings more energy efficient, they are constrained by lack of adoption. This study used a mixed-method approach to investigate the effectiveness of contemporary BIM and energy simulation technologies in refurbishment of existing school buildings. Secondary quantitative data collected from 10 case studies of schools that benefitted from SEEF was supported by interviews of seven heads of schools that had undergone SEEF refurbishment. Results showed that: CIF and SEEF which administratively are mutually exclusive funding streams ought to operate in synergy due to the interaction of a building’s physical envelope with heat transfer and energy used by equipment and systems; some schools are not getting technical advice on how to optimise the funds they receive from SEEF leading to non-optimal investment. Recommendations provided include: extensive training on BIM and GSL to heads of schools and advise to government agencies to reconcile the purpose of CIF and SEEF for a holistic solution to carbon reduction in schools.

© Lloyd Scott and Chris Gorse. Published version reproduced with permission.

Published as: Al-Bunni, Asem and Shayesteh, Homeira (2018) An investigation into the energy performance of school buildings refurbished through Salix funding. In: Scott, L. and Gorse, C. (Eds) SEEDS 2018 proceedings: 4th International SEEDS Conference 2018 Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design for Society, 06-07 Sept 2018, Dublin, Ireland. pages 466-482, ISBN 9780995569034,