Group Members
Ben Craven
Robert Gillies
Ioannis Karamichalis
Antony Maitos

Supervisor
Dr Paul Strachan

Group meetings
The group met almost every day, and we had a weekly meeting with our supervisor.

Week 1
Introductory meeting. Discussion on possible topics on energy conscious building design. Delegation of reviewing tasks as follows:
   

We also planned our time schedule for the next 12 weeks.

Week 2
We spent the entire week reviewing several sectors. The last week Ben had been reading about glazing and insulation materials, Bob had been concentrated on environmental aspects, John had been reading about energy storage and Antony about integrated photovoltaics.
      At week 2 new tasks were added. Tony took the ventilation on buildings, Bob the cost of materials, and Ioannis started reading about solar houses. Ben began to construct a proposed taxonomy of the methods being used for energy conscious building design.

Work in progress
Literature review on energy conscious building design
 
Agenda for coming week
Proceed with literature review
Prepare questions to ask on the coming lecture on PV

Week 3
There was a lecture on PV by Bernard McNelis of IT Power. We took the opportunity to ask several questions concerning PV policy and future in UK and solar energy storage.
      We also prepared and executed an unofficial presentation for Lorraine Stefani - objectives, skills required, goals and criteria for excellence.
      The most important event was our first crit on Friday, where everybody gave their best to prepare a good presentation.

Work in Progress
Antony was reviewing natural ventilation on buildings. Ben, who was reviewing heat pumps and boiler technologies, produced the taxonomy of energy-efficient building technologies. Bob was working on CO2 emissions. Ioannis was reviewing existing designs of passive solar houses. We were also working on preparation for the first crit.

Agenda for Coming Week
Narrow down our subjects and choose a topic
Arrange our first contacts with experts

Week 4
We produced 30 ideas for possible subjects. Half of them were judged to be feasible, so each of us took four proposed ideas in order to investigate if a strong topic could be found. Finally we came up with a subject to work on, but we decided to have also an alternative plan as a backup. Our primary case was to utilize a hybrid PV facade in combination with a heat pump, exploiting both the thermal and electrical output.

Other Activities
Our course made its first field trip. We visited a paper mill installation, which was very noisy but interesting. Our team made a contact with Lori McElroy, environmental engineer, with whom several subjects were discussed.

Work in Progress
Choosing a topic
Topic chosen: a proposal for improving PV façades' efficiency

Agenda for Coming Week
Support our case
Preparations for our next presentation
Arranging contacts with experts

Week 5
A great disappointment: Before our second crit, Ben - who was doing the thermal calculations on PV hybrid/ HP system found out our idea having insufficient performance. However, we made an excellent presentation of it. But finally we were obliged to abandon it and start a case on low energy demand buildings.

Other Activities
Our course made its second field trip. We visited a landfill gas site.
      Our team made a contact with John Gilbert, architect, who presented to us an award-winning energy efficient house which is being built in Glasgow.

Work in Progress
Ben was doing the thermal calculations on PV hybrid/ HP system. Antony calculated how the PV facade would meet annual thermal demand of a 150m2 house in Glasgow. John did produce the graphics and the material for the presentation. Bob arranged our next contacts with experts.

Agenda for Coming Week
Support our new case
Make more contacts with experts

Week 6
A new beginning: We decided to improve the energy performance of John Gilbert's building by applying some technologies and procedures we had encountered during our literature review.

Other Activities
Our course made its best trip so far. We visited the Longannet Power Station
Our team made several contacts that week:

• We met again John Gilbert, architect, who provided us an with extra information on the development at Shettleston.
• We visited Colin Porteous, architect, who enlightened us on some energy efficient techniques.
• We met Professor Michael Corcoran, who proposed us some procedures we could follow
• We also met Prof. Jim McKelvie, who told us about the use of desiccants for energy storage.

Work in Progress
Ben was thinking of a possible thermodynamical approach to our case. Ioannis took the electrical demand of the building. Bob made additional contacts with the architects to collect needful data. Antony begun constructing our web site.

Agenda for Coming Week
Estimate every type of energy demand that our building may have

Week 7
We spent much time on calculations during that week and eventually we didn't pay much attention on the coming 3rd presentation of our group. That affected on the quality of the presentation we made it was undoubtedly the worst we ever made. On the other hand, we made a significant progress on our case study.

Work in Progress
Ben was thinking of load flattening. Ioannis estimated the electrical demand of the building and proposed how to reduce it. Bob was working on possible installation of solar slates at our building. Antony calculated the thermal demand.

Agenda for Coming Week
Estimate every type of energy demand that our building may have.

Week 8
Our supervisor suggested that our project didn't seem to have a strong environmental sector, therefore it was decided that one member of our group should work on it. Bob managed to investigate and make sense of UK environmental statistics, while the other members were trying to flatten both the electrical and the thermal demand of the building.

Other Activities
Our course made a visit on a waste recycling gathering point.

Work in Progress
Ben was trying to flatten the energy demand and then match it with the supply. Ioannis begun constructing an energy model of the building to investigate the passive solar power we could apply. Antony, while constructing our web site, calculated active solar resources. Bob worked on the environmental aspects.

Agenda for Coming Week
Work on our case.
Make a better presentation on the coming Friday

Week 9
Ben investigated the possibility of replacing the electrical motor used on the heating pump by a heat engine. Ioannis encountered some unexpected difficulties with the energy model. Our 4th presentation at the end of week was much better than the previous one.

Other Activities
Our course made a field trip to National Engineering Laboratory. On Friday, Bob went to Edinburgh to attend a conference on environmental aspects.

Work in Progress
Ben worked on the issue of how best to power a heat pump. Ioannis continued working on the energy model. Antony was constructing our web site and reading about solar collectors and Energy-10 software. Bob worked on aspects of sustainability in the built environment.

Agenda for Coming Week
Complete our case study
Work on our web site

Week 10
Paul told us that our last presentation was generally regarded as lacking a coherent theme. We started thinking - and worrying - about the final presentation of our project. Ben produced a possible structure. We also discussed about our web page.

Other Activities
Our course made a field trip to a Wind Farm. Ioannis spent a lot of time searching for information on the Environmental Impact Assignments.

Work in Progress
Ben made a presentation attempt and wrote a C program to convert esp-r climate files to TMY2 format for use with Energy-10 software. Antony made final calculations of supplying electricity with Ioannis continued working on the energy model. Bob worked on the environmental impact assessment of Stirling engine.

Agenda for Coming Week
Complete our case study
Work on our web site
Preparation for the next crit