Low-energy passive-solar students residences at Strathclyde University using transparent insulation

This paper reports the monitoring of an innovative solar building in Glasgow. In particular the properties of the novel technology, transparent insulation (TI), and the use of electricity are quantified. A main result is that winter solar energy gain into the fabric of a building can be significant at higher latitudes, but only if other energy efficiency measures are taken, such as superinsulation and dense internal construction with large intrinsic thermal capacity. The successful demonstration of the novel and associated technologies has given much practical information for replication. In general the passive features for heat gain (eg the TI, orientation, insulation, thermal mass) are more effective than the active features (eg air-to-air heat recovery, automatically controlled blinds, heater controls)