Leeds Beckett sets new global standards to reduce heat loss in housing

Two new European Standards have been published - and adopted in 34 countries - following work led by Leeds Beckett’s Professor David Johnston, together with Professor Richard Fitton at the University of Salford, in collaboration with a wide range of experts from across Europe.

The standards cover work carried out in a new and existing real-life homes rather than a lab testing environment; the unique approach which allows the pioneering Leeds Sustainability Institute at Leeds Beckett to consistently define global standards for measuring housing performance.  The standards are based upon a testing method (the Coheating Test) that Professor Johnston and colleagues developed at Leeds Beckett University.

The new European Standards will make sure that the thermal performance of housing can be measured and understood in the same way.

Dr David Johnston, Professor of Building Performance Evaluation within Leeds Sustainability Institute, said:

“These standards are the result of a decade’s work. It’s a long process but the impact will be incredibly important as governments and housebuilders rise to the challenge of the climate emergency and Net Zero targets.  

“Leeds Beckett has long set the standards and protocols that the rest of the world follows to assess the aggregate in situ thermal performance of housing.

“It enables the performance of the building fabric to be tested under the pressures of real-life, revealing any gaps between what designers intended and what was actually built.”

Professor David Johnston has also been accepted as a Committee Member of B/540/8 the Mirror committee for ISO/TC 163 - Thermal Performance and Energy use in the Built Environment.

The Leeds Sustainability Institute is a unique multi-disciplinary team which combines an understanding of building science, the way people behave, field work and analysing big data.

The unique team and approach informs sustainable building policy on a local and global scale. The institute has won 10 Government projects worth over £4 million over the last 8 years, relating to energy in buildings.

The strength of Leeds Beckett University’s partnership work has been recognised by the fourth national Knowledge Exchange Framework – with the University placed in the top 20% of universities in three categories.