Low Carbon Climate-Responsive Heating and Cooling of Cities (LoHCool)

Prof. Alan Short (PI), Prof. Peter Guthrie (Co-I) and Dr Michael Herzog (Co-I) have been awarded the Low Carbon Climate-Responsive Heating and Cooling of Cities (LoHCool) project, which is one of the four projects funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to tackle emerging issues associated with achieving low carbon cities in the UK and China. The four projects will receive over £3 million in funding, with matched equivalent resources from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Professor Philip Nelson FREng, EPSRC’s Chief Executive, said:

“The aim of this UK-China research collaboration will be to reduce worldwide CO2 production and ensure energy security and affordability. This is the first of three low carbon innovation projects between EPSRC and NCSF. The projects build on the strength of our internationally renowned research and will benefit both the UK and Chinese economies.”

Particularly, the LoHCool project will concentrates on recovering value from the existing urban building stock in challenging hot summer and cold winter zone of China. This highly cross-disciplinary research proposed involves engineers, building scientists, atmospheric scientists, architects and behavioural researchers in China and UK, measuring real and potential performance in existing buildings in Chinese cities to investigate the use of passive and active systems within integrated design and re-engineering.

Besides the University of Cambridge, the project team involves Co-I’s and Post-Docs from the University of Reading and Loughborough University as well from the UK, and Co-I’s, post-doc and PhD students from Chongqing University and Zhejiang University from China.  

The main objectives of the project are:

  1. Increase understanding and knowledge of the variety existing in the built environment, the fundamental building types, their urban settings, their microclimates, their energy systems, their occupants' thermal comfort aspirations.
  2. Diagnose and analyse fundamental issues of current performance.
  3. Invent and catalogue climate-responsive, performance-improving re-engineering and refurbishment solutions for heating and cooling.
  4. Develop an insightful and accessible evidence-based tool to empower policy-makers and professionals in decision-making in the delivery of low carbon heating and cooling in cities.
  5. Disseminate academic research output to maintain the research partners' world leading positions and make significant impacts through guidance, regulatory reform and practical examples.

Further information:

Grant details:  http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/N009797/1