Dr. Oliver Kinnane:

It is, certainly. We make all these findings available to the SEAI. This is research funded by the SEAI which is keen to learn from the projects it has funded. This is only happening in certain cases where we are seeing a performance gap. We have a project with the SEAI, the nZeb101 project, where we are trying to monitor a large cohort of near zero-energy buildings. Many of them are performing at very high B level or at A level, but some in certain cases are performing at a C level for which there are a number of reasons. One is a comfort-taking issue where people in retrofit homes are often living in warmer temperatures because they can. These homes retain the heat better but at the same time the energy bills might be increasing. We also see installation issues, such as mis-sizing of heat pumps. We have another project with the SEAI, the MacAirH project, where we are trying to evaluate heat pumps in operation. We see many issues with them, such as poor installation, lack of insulation of piping, long pipe-runs and heat loss through the mismatching of heat pumps with emitter sizes. We see the performance of heat pumps rated by manufacturers at 3.5 all the way up to 4.5 commonly operating at about 2.5 and slightly below that. These are research findings backed up by much bigger studies done in the UK with larger sample sizes and greater research funding. There are a number of reasons.

When we looked at the fabric, we were surprised by the results of the fabric analysis. On-site installation issues and certain design issues seem to be a problem. It is hard for us to do opening-up works post-construction so commonly we rely on thermal imaging and try to decipher from that, or heat flux monitoring. Often it is thermal bridging due to bridged elements in the wall or thermal bypassing where there is convective movement in behind the insulation. These are design and construction issues.