Linda Toledo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Linda Toledo
This conference paper is concerned with some central aspects and implications of flooding in urba... more This conference paper is concerned with some central aspects and implications of flooding in urban environments, and it specifically focuses on a certain typology of flooding—surface water flooding—resulting from excess of surface water runoff as it occurs in London. In particular, the paper considers some of the main alternative strategies that can be used to reduce the risk of surface water flooding and pays specific attention to the benefits of SUDS. The suitability of SUDS in the urban context is tested through an approach focusing on the city block scale. Accordingly, quantitative simulation and critical discussion will be used to compare adaptive strategies of two types of city blocks in London: a typical Georgian block and a Modernist block. On this basis, the claim will be defended that the Modernist block can be better adapted not only to cope with its own surface water runoff but also to compensate as 'active' catchments for other parts of the city.
Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems r... more Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems relating to ventilation and occupant comfort. In fact, growing evidence of uncomfortably warm homes has been appearing in UK consistently in the few last years. This paper discusses the overheating risk in four highly insulated homes in the UK where a mixed methods approach has been deployed to characterise areas of overheating risk, which have been found to occur with different degree of severity and different sources of risk, all related to design and
During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely... more During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely to spend most of their time indoors. This situation is aggravated by the fact that the majority of excess-deaths during a heat wave occur amongst the vulnerable population. In addition, energy efficient homes can worsen this scenario since internal temperatures are prone to respond quicker to heat gains, aggravating heat stress. This paper is concerned with the vulnerability and resilience to heat waves of low carbon homes. A monitoring study of four energy efficient homes in the UK during the short heat wave experienced in 2015 is analysed. A close exploration of the variability of internal temperatures recorded with high resolution and in each room allows the areas of greatest risk to be mapped. These results are linked to occupants’ responses. The analysis shows how building characteristics and ventilation can affect thermal conditions, and how design should take this into account.
When exploring the topic of overheating in buildings, the notion is commonly applied to future ov... more When exploring the topic of overheating in buildings, the notion is commonly applied to future overheating, as a consequence of climate change. By contrast, this thesis is concerned with present-day overheating, as it is experienced in highly insulated houses. This can be claimed to be an unintended consequence of decarbonising the built environment, which has led to high levels of insulation and airtightness in the design of new homes in the UK.
Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems r... more Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems relating to ventilation and occupant comfort. In fact, growing evidence of uncomfortably warm homes has been appearing in UK consistently in the few last years. This paper discusses the overheating risk in four highly insulated homes in the UK where a mixed methods approach has been deployed to characterise areas of overheating risk, which have been found to occur with different degree of severity and different sources of risk, all related to design and
During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely... more During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely to spend most of their time indoors. This situation is aggravated by the fact that the majority of excess-deaths during a heat wave occur amongst the vulnerable population. In addition, energy efficient homes can worsen this scenario since internal temperatures are prone to respond quicker to heat gains, aggravating heat stress. This paper is concerned with the vulnerability and resilience to heat waves of low carbon homes. A monitoring study of four energy efficient homes in the UK during the short heat wave experienced in 2015 is analysed. A close exploration of the variability of internal temperatures recorded with high resolution and in each room allows the areas of greatest risk to be mapped. These results are linked to occupants’ responses. The analysis shows how building characteristics and ventilation can affect thermal conditions, and how design should take this into account.
The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) is a parametric modelling spreadsheet for building ener... more The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) is a parametric modelling spreadsheet for building energy performance designed initially for the certification of buildings that meet passivhaus and EnerPHit refurbishment standards. However there is also a growing use of PHPP as a design stage tool to test strategic options for new build, hybrid and refurbishment development projects. As passive design principles follow a fabric-first approach to achieve a whole-house energy performance, the concept design stages are critical to success as decisions are made regarding orientation and heat-loss parameters arising out of the building geometry. In this context, PHPP is a trusted calculation tool that is comprehensive in the scope of factors and variables included to make it one of the most scientifically superior tools available. Its practical value is reinforced from a series of comparative studies which have undertaken triangulation in design stage energy assessments and PHPP has proved to b...
As the climate changes, global use of air-conditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought f... more As the climate changes, global use of air-conditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought for maintaining thermal comfort in buildings. This rises alongside increased purchasing power as economies grow, harbouring the potential to unleash an unprecedented growth in energy demand. Encouraging higher levels of air movement at warmer temperatures to maintain thermal comfort may offset the risk of increased air-conditioning use. Whilst laboratory studies have quantified air motion effects on the human body, it remains unclear as to how best to incorporate higher air motion in the design and operation of residential / mixed mode buildings to offset air-conditioning use. The project reported is developing a better understanding of thermal comfort in residential /mixed mode buildings and is identifying the potential for higher air movement for providing energy-efficient comfort. Co-ordinated field surveys in British and Indian residences of thermal conditions, sensations and air moti...
Preface to the Proceedings of the 9th Windsor 2016 at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor For many the cost... more Preface to the Proceedings of the 9th Windsor 2016 at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor For many the costs of providing acceptable indoor temperatures have become prohibitive. Around the world people already have to make stark choices on whether to spend money on heating and cooling or on eating. The science of comfort developed in the 20th century around the needs of the HVAC industry for whom comfort was a product, produced by machines to be sold to customers. Engineers and other building professionals needed target conditions to feed into their calculations to create comfortable or neutral environments for groups of people in diverse buildings. But simple comfort models based on physics and physiology and using heat balance assumptions was found to be inadequate to explain the dynamic environments found to exist in many buildings when investigated using field surveys. However, despite being valued for its ability to deal with variable conditions, the field study approach continued to con...
Building and Environment, 2018
The exercise began with a systematic collection and harmonization of raw data from the last two d... more The exercise began with a systematic collection and harmonization of raw data from the last two decades of thermal comfort field studies around the world. The ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II (Comfort Database), now an online, open-source database, includes approximately 81,846 complete sets of objective indoor climatic observations with accompanying "right-here-right-now" subjective evaluations by the building occupants who were exposed to them. The database is intended to support diverse inquiries about thermal comfort in field settings. A simple web-based interface to the database enables filtering on multiple criteria, including building typology, occupancy type, subjects' demographic variables, subjective thermal comfort states, indoor thermal environmental criteria, calculated comfort indices, environmental control criteria and outdoor meteorological information. Furthermore, a web-based interactive thermal comfort visualization tool has been developed that allows end-users to quickly and interactively explore the data.
This paper attempts to evaluate the knowledge collected from interviews with some of the key stak... more This paper attempts to evaluate the knowledge collected from interviews with some of the key stakeholders engaged in an urban regeneration project in Swansea, UK; known as “Urban Village”. The tacit knowledge acquired from some of the “Urban Village” project’s stakeholder project have been codified and mapped out using a standard for “Integration Definition for Function Modeling” (IDEF0), in order to model the decisions, actions, and activities that have characterised the visioning and strategy for the “Urban Village” project. This paper therefore attempts to address the conference theme ‘Global knowledge via local place’ at The Production of Place conference, London 2012. In this process the authors have created a graphical data flow tool for illustrating and assessing the tacit and explicit knowledge involved in the complex decision making process of urban regeneration and therefore enabling them to characterise a ‘place’.
This paper will explore the feasibility of achieving a Zero Carbon House in London and how this s... more This paper will explore the feasibility of achieving a Zero Carbon House in London and how this standard, as it applies to houses, is affected by climate change. The design of a master plan in London will form a context to which a terraced house is tested, first under a 2011 climate scenario and subsequently under a 2080 predicted climate scenario. This enables the evaluation of the performance of the UK Government‟s Zero Carbon „Fabric Energy Efficiency Standards‟ both now and in the future. This research then analyses the appropriateness of the measures taken and discusses how to prevent a (future predicted) increase in energy demand for cooling.
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2013
This conference paper is concerned with some central aspects and implications of flooding in urba... more This conference paper is concerned with some central aspects and implications of flooding in urban environments, and it specifically focuses on a certain typology of flooding—surface water flooding—resulting from excess of surface water runoff as it occurs in London. In particular, the paper considers some of the main alternative strategies that can be used to reduce the risk of surface water flooding and pays specific attention to the benefits of SUDS. The suitability of SUDS in the urban context is tested through an approach focusing on the city block scale. Accordingly, quantitative simulation and critical discussion will be used to compare adaptive strategies of two types of city blocks in London: a typical Georgian block and a Modernist block. On this basis, the claim will be defended that the Modernist block can be better adapted not only to cope with its own surface water runoff but also to compensate as 'active' catchments for other parts of the city.
Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems r... more Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems relating to ventilation and occupant comfort. In fact, growing evidence of uncomfortably warm homes has been appearing in UK consistently in the few last years. This paper discusses the overheating risk in four highly insulated homes in the UK where a mixed methods approach has been deployed to characterise areas of overheating risk, which have been found to occur with different degree of severity and different sources of risk, all related to design and
During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely... more During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely to spend most of their time indoors. This situation is aggravated by the fact that the majority of excess-deaths during a heat wave occur amongst the vulnerable population. In addition, energy efficient homes can worsen this scenario since internal temperatures are prone to respond quicker to heat gains, aggravating heat stress. This paper is concerned with the vulnerability and resilience to heat waves of low carbon homes. A monitoring study of four energy efficient homes in the UK during the short heat wave experienced in 2015 is analysed. A close exploration of the variability of internal temperatures recorded with high resolution and in each room allows the areas of greatest risk to be mapped. These results are linked to occupants’ responses. The analysis shows how building characteristics and ventilation can affect thermal conditions, and how design should take this into account.
When exploring the topic of overheating in buildings, the notion is commonly applied to future ov... more When exploring the topic of overheating in buildings, the notion is commonly applied to future overheating, as a consequence of climate change. By contrast, this thesis is concerned with present-day overheating, as it is experienced in highly insulated houses. This can be claimed to be an unintended consequence of decarbonising the built environment, which has led to high levels of insulation and airtightness in the design of new homes in the UK.
Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems r... more Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems relating to ventilation and occupant comfort. In fact, growing evidence of uncomfortably warm homes has been appearing in UK consistently in the few last years. This paper discusses the overheating risk in four highly insulated homes in the UK where a mixed methods approach has been deployed to characterise areas of overheating risk, which have been found to occur with different degree of severity and different sources of risk, all related to design and
During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely... more During heat waves, people experience both external and internal temperatures, but they are likely to spend most of their time indoors. This situation is aggravated by the fact that the majority of excess-deaths during a heat wave occur amongst the vulnerable population. In addition, energy efficient homes can worsen this scenario since internal temperatures are prone to respond quicker to heat gains, aggravating heat stress. This paper is concerned with the vulnerability and resilience to heat waves of low carbon homes. A monitoring study of four energy efficient homes in the UK during the short heat wave experienced in 2015 is analysed. A close exploration of the variability of internal temperatures recorded with high resolution and in each room allows the areas of greatest risk to be mapped. These results are linked to occupants’ responses. The analysis shows how building characteristics and ventilation can affect thermal conditions, and how design should take this into account.
The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) is a parametric modelling spreadsheet for building ener... more The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) is a parametric modelling spreadsheet for building energy performance designed initially for the certification of buildings that meet passivhaus and EnerPHit refurbishment standards. However there is also a growing use of PHPP as a design stage tool to test strategic options for new build, hybrid and refurbishment development projects. As passive design principles follow a fabric-first approach to achieve a whole-house energy performance, the concept design stages are critical to success as decisions are made regarding orientation and heat-loss parameters arising out of the building geometry. In this context, PHPP is a trusted calculation tool that is comprehensive in the scope of factors and variables included to make it one of the most scientifically superior tools available. Its practical value is reinforced from a series of comparative studies which have undertaken triangulation in design stage energy assessments and PHPP has proved to b...
As the climate changes, global use of air-conditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought f... more As the climate changes, global use of air-conditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought for maintaining thermal comfort in buildings. This rises alongside increased purchasing power as economies grow, harbouring the potential to unleash an unprecedented growth in energy demand. Encouraging higher levels of air movement at warmer temperatures to maintain thermal comfort may offset the risk of increased air-conditioning use. Whilst laboratory studies have quantified air motion effects on the human body, it remains unclear as to how best to incorporate higher air motion in the design and operation of residential / mixed mode buildings to offset air-conditioning use. The project reported is developing a better understanding of thermal comfort in residential /mixed mode buildings and is identifying the potential for higher air movement for providing energy-efficient comfort. Co-ordinated field surveys in British and Indian residences of thermal conditions, sensations and air moti...
Preface to the Proceedings of the 9th Windsor 2016 at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor For many the cost... more Preface to the Proceedings of the 9th Windsor 2016 at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor For many the costs of providing acceptable indoor temperatures have become prohibitive. Around the world people already have to make stark choices on whether to spend money on heating and cooling or on eating. The science of comfort developed in the 20th century around the needs of the HVAC industry for whom comfort was a product, produced by machines to be sold to customers. Engineers and other building professionals needed target conditions to feed into their calculations to create comfortable or neutral environments for groups of people in diverse buildings. But simple comfort models based on physics and physiology and using heat balance assumptions was found to be inadequate to explain the dynamic environments found to exist in many buildings when investigated using field surveys. However, despite being valued for its ability to deal with variable conditions, the field study approach continued to con...
Building and Environment, 2018
The exercise began with a systematic collection and harmonization of raw data from the last two d... more The exercise began with a systematic collection and harmonization of raw data from the last two decades of thermal comfort field studies around the world. The ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II (Comfort Database), now an online, open-source database, includes approximately 81,846 complete sets of objective indoor climatic observations with accompanying "right-here-right-now" subjective evaluations by the building occupants who were exposed to them. The database is intended to support diverse inquiries about thermal comfort in field settings. A simple web-based interface to the database enables filtering on multiple criteria, including building typology, occupancy type, subjects' demographic variables, subjective thermal comfort states, indoor thermal environmental criteria, calculated comfort indices, environmental control criteria and outdoor meteorological information. Furthermore, a web-based interactive thermal comfort visualization tool has been developed that allows end-users to quickly and interactively explore the data.
This paper attempts to evaluate the knowledge collected from interviews with some of the key stak... more This paper attempts to evaluate the knowledge collected from interviews with some of the key stakeholders engaged in an urban regeneration project in Swansea, UK; known as “Urban Village”. The tacit knowledge acquired from some of the “Urban Village” project’s stakeholder project have been codified and mapped out using a standard for “Integration Definition for Function Modeling” (IDEF0), in order to model the decisions, actions, and activities that have characterised the visioning and strategy for the “Urban Village” project. This paper therefore attempts to address the conference theme ‘Global knowledge via local place’ at The Production of Place conference, London 2012. In this process the authors have created a graphical data flow tool for illustrating and assessing the tacit and explicit knowledge involved in the complex decision making process of urban regeneration and therefore enabling them to characterise a ‘place’.
This paper will explore the feasibility of achieving a Zero Carbon House in London and how this s... more This paper will explore the feasibility of achieving a Zero Carbon House in London and how this standard, as it applies to houses, is affected by climate change. The design of a master plan in London will form a context to which a terraced house is tested, first under a 2011 climate scenario and subsequently under a 2080 predicted climate scenario. This enables the evaluation of the performance of the UK Government‟s Zero Carbon „Fabric Energy Efficiency Standards‟ both now and in the future. This research then analyses the appropriateness of the measures taken and discusses how to prevent a (future predicted) increase in energy demand for cooling.
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2013