The Wilden Living Lab
The Wilden Living Lab was created to develop a model for overall energy consumption, energy prediction systems, cost-benefit analysis and optimization of materials and systems for long-term financial savings from residential buildings. This project is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. The internal synergies of the Life Cycle Management Laboratory (LCML) and Applied Laboratory for Advance Materials and Structures (ALAMS) at UBCO is en-route to address the multi- disciplinary goals of this project. Moreover, these labs have partnerships with local builders, developers, utility providers and building service providers to identify the profound industrial needs and work towards a feasible solution while acquiring industrial expertise. The project is into year two of a three- year plan. The energy simulation model and the life cycle cost model are nearly seventy-percent completed. Consumer behavior will be incorporated into aforementioned models through an extensive data collection from two different houses: House of Today (H2D) (that uses conventional materials and systems used in an average house in Canada) and House of Tomorrow (H2M) (that uses advanced materials and systems that are available in market for energy efficient houses). As the ultimate deliverable of this project, a decision support tool will be developed to select the best desirable materials and assemblies to reduce energy consumption, environmental impact and life cycle cost of the household, considering different consumer behaviors. The developed tool will be delivered to the industrial partners to use as a planning tool for future single detached houses. This research will help Canada to save a substantial amount of natural resources by reducing energy usage in residential buildings and thus, can contribute directly to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
Project Team
- M. Shahria Alam(PI)
- Rudolf Seethaler(Co-PI)
- Kasun Hewage (Co-PI)
- Rehan Sadiq (Co-PI)
- Sunny Li (Co-PI)
- Dwayne Tannant (Co-PI)
- Piyaruwan Perera
- Anber Rana
- Kyle Charles
Publications:
- Perera, P., Hewage, K., Alam, M. S., Merida, W., Sadiq, R., (2018). Scenario-Based Economic and Environmental Analysis of Clean Energy Incentives for Households in Canada: Multi Criteria Decision Making Approach. Submitted to Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier) – Accepted on 03 rd July 2018 and manuscript ID is JCLEPRO-D-18-03866
- Rana, A., Charles, K., Perera, P., Hewage, K., Alam, M. S., Sadiq, R., (2018). Thermal transmittance values for double and triple glazed windows: Experimental results from lab and in-situ measurements, 1st international Conference on New Horizons in Green Civil Engineering, Victoria, BC.
- Perera, P., Alam, M. S., Hewage, K., Sadiq, R., (2017) “Eco-efficiency analysis of recycled material based residential construction – A case study for Okanagan, BC,” in 6th CSCECRC International Construction Specialty Conference, June 1-3rd, 2017. Vancouver.
- Rana, A., Hewage, K., Alam, M. S., Sadiq, R. 2016. Financial incentives for green residential buildings in Canada: a review from a regulatory lens,6th CSCECRC International Construction Specialty Conference, June 1-3rd,2017.Vancouver.
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