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The European Commission's Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (IEEA) has agreed to part-fund the Advanced Ventilation Approaches for Social Housing (AVASH) project.

Co-ordinated by University of Brighton, the £500,000 scheme aims to determine the best ventilation strategy for existing social housing in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, from the point of view of energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

The project will involve the assessment of a broad range of social housing stock in each of the three countries.

Advanced sensor equipment will be used to discover the state of their thermal insulation and level of air tightness.

Additionally, thermographic imaging will assess the thermal performance of the building fabric, while a blower door will pressure test the properties to assess their air tightness.

Once completed, computer simulation techniques, utilising the whole house energy modelling tool ESP-r, will determine the best ventilation strategy for the dwellings.

The results will be widely disseminated in the three participant countries, as well as in Eastern Europe.

The aim is to provide useful data for social housing providers across the continent who are considering upgrading their social housing stock.

A central point of information will be the project website, soon to be hosted by the university, which will be kept updated with major project results, and will incorporate at the end of the project a results database to allow easy access to some of the main project conclusions.

The research project involves four partners including Cenergia Energy Consultants (Denmark), EcoCo Sustainable ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV Consultants (Ireland), KAB-ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV and Housing Management (Denmark) and Cluid Housing Association (Ireland).

Dr Ryan Southall and Professor Mike McEvoy from the University of Brighton’s School of Architecture & Design will co-ordinate the scheme.

Subcontractors to the project include Camden City Council and Flop System Sp. z o.o. in Poland. The project runs for two years and addresses the EC’s key action of retrofitting social housing.