Professor David Allinson

Summary

I combine measurement and modelling techniques to evaluate the energy, thermal, and moisture performance of buildings. My expertise includes: large scale field trails; test houses with synthetic occupants; the Loughborough Hygrothermal Test Facility; building diagnostics and post-occupancy evaluation; energy, temperature and indoor air quality monitoring; modelling, thermal and hygrothermal simulation, and the UK's Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP).

Current research activity

• Development of Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) 11, BRE/BEIS
• SMETER Business Process Design Project (SMETER BPD), AECOM/BEIS
• Active Buildings Centre, EPSRC

Recently completed research projects

• Technical Evaluation of SMETER Technologies (TEST) Project, BEIS
• Active Buildings Centre, EPSRC
• Methods and Metrics for Moisture Risk Assessment (MRA-SWI), EPSRC
• DEFACTO - Digital Energy Feedback and Control Optimisation, EPSRC
• SCENe- Sustainable Community Energy Networks, Innovate UK

Completed Doctoral Researchers

• Dr Matt Li (2022) Thermal performance of UK dwellings: assessment of methods for quantifying whole-dwelling heat loss in occupied homes
  
• Dr Rami El Geneidy (2021) Engineering energy flexibility into buildings: development and evaluation of a model-predictive control strategy for demand response with space-heating
• Dr Dan Wright (2021) The energy-saving potential of domestic zonal space heating controls: a socio-technical assessment of semi-detached and owner-occupied UK homes
  
• Dr Kostas Chapasis (2021) Appraisal of community energy schemes
• Dr Ben Roberts (2020) Ventilation and shading to reduce overheating in UK homes: an evaluation using matched pair test houses with synthetic occupancy
• Dr Roel Tersteeg (2020) Capturing the impact of wind-driven rain on solid-brick wall dwellings
• Dr Karl Sample (2020) Uncertainty in predicting the impact of domestic energy efficiency policy: the case of the green deal
• Dr Victoria Tink (2018) The measured energy efficiency and thermal environment of a UK house retrofitted with internal wall insulation
• Dr Ali Badiei (2018) A reduced data dynamic energy model of the UK houses
• Dr Kate Simpson (2017) Energy efficiency refurbishment in UK owner-occupied homes: The householders' perspective
• Dr Ashley Morton (2017) Heating use in UK homes
• Dr Selin Yilmaz (2017) Stochastic bottom-up modelling of household appliance usage to quantify the demand response potential in UK residential sector
• Dr Louis Fifield (2017) Monitoring UK hospital building type performance
• Dr Arash Beizaee (2016) Measuring and modelling the energy demand reduction potential of using zonal space heating control in a UK home
• Dr Richard Jack (2015) Building diagnostics: practical measurement of the fabric thermal performance of houses
• Dr Jonathan Morris (2013) Benchmarking domestic gas and electricity consumption to aid local authority carbon reduction policy.

• Roberts, BM, Allinson, D, Lomas, K (2021) Evaluating methods for estimating whole house air infiltration rates in summer: implications for overheating and indoor air quality, International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, ISSN: 2398-4708. DOI: 10.1108/IJBPA-06-2021-0085.
• Lomas, K, Allinson, D, Watson, S, Beizaee, A, Haines, V, Li, M (2021) Energy savings from domestic zonal heating controls: Robust evidence from a controlled field trial, Energy and Buildings, 254, 111572, ISSN: 0378-7788. DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111572.
• Lomas, K, Watson, S, Allinson, D, Fateh, A, Beaumont, A, Allen, J, Foster, H, Garrett, H (2021) Dwelling and household characteristics' influence on reported and measured summertime overheating: a glimpse of a mild climate in the 2050's, Building and Environment, 201, 107986, ISSN: 0360-1323. DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107986.
• Badiei, A, Allinson, D, Lomas, K (2019) Automated dynamic thermal simulation of houses and housing stocks using readily available reduced data, Energy and Buildings, 203, 109431, ISSN: 0378-7788. DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109431.
• Lomas, KJ, Beizaee, A, Allinson, D, Haines, VJ, Beckhelling, J, Loveday, DL, Porritt, SM, Mallaband, B, Morton, A (2019) A domestic operational rating for UK homes: Concept, formulation and application, Energy and Buildings, 201, pp.90-117, ISSN: 0378-7788. DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.07.021.
• Li, M, Allinson, D, Lomas, K (2019) Estimation of building heat transfer coefficients from in-use data: Impacts of unmonitored energy flows, International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 38(1), pp.38-50, ISSN: 2398-4708. DOI: 10.1108/IJBPA-02-2019-0022.
• Roberts, BM, Allinson, D, Diamond, S, Abel, B, Das Bhaumik, C, Khatami, N, Lomas, K (2019) Predictions of summertime overheating: comparison of dynamic thermal models and measurements in synthetically occupied test houses, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 40(4), pp.512-552, ISSN: 0143-6244. DOI: 10.1177/0143624419847349.
• Tink, VJ, Porritt, S, Allinson, D, Loveday, D (2018) Measuring and mitigating overheating risk in solid wall dwellings retrofitted with internal wall insulation, Building and Environment, 141, pp.247-261, ISSN: 0360-1323. DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.05.062.
• Fifield, L-J, Lomas, K, Giridharan, R, Allinson, D (2018) Hospital wards and modular construction: Summertime overheating and energy efficiency, Building and Environment, 141, pp.28-44, ISSN: 0360-1323. DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.05.041.
• Li, M, Allinson, D, He, M (2018) Seasonal variation in household electricity demand: A comparison of monitored and synthetic daily load profiles, Energy and Buildings, ISSN: 0378-7788. DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.09.018.
• Roberts, BM, Allinson, D, Lomas, K (2018) A matched pair of test houses with synthetic occupants to investigate summertime overheating, Journal of Sustainable Design & Applied Research, 6(1), pp.29-38, ISSN: 2009-549X. DOI: 10.21427/D70N8S.
• Jack, R, Loveday, D, Allinson, D, Lomas, K (2017) First evidence for the reliability of building co-heating tests, Building Research & Information, 46(4), pp.383-401, ISSN: 0961-3218. DOI: 10.1080/09613218.2017.1299523.
• Yilmaz, S, Firth, S, Allinson, D (2017) Occupant behaviour modelling in domestic buildings: the case of household electrical appliances, Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 10(5-6), pp.582-600, ISSN: 1940-1493. DOI: 10.1080/19401493.2017.1287775.
• Allinson, D, Irvine, K, Edmondson, JL, Tiwary, A, Hill, G, Morris, J, Bell, MC, Davies, ZG, Firth, S, Fisher, J, Gaston, KJ, Leake, JR, McHugh, N, Namdeo, A, Rylatt, M, Lomas, K (2016) Measurement and analysis of household carbon: the case of a UK city, Applied Energy, 164, pp.871-881, ISSN: 0306-2619. DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.11.054.
• Lomas, KJ, Morris, J, Allinson, D, Harrison, J (2015) Benchmarking and tracking domestic gas and electricity consumption at the local authority level, Energy Efficiency, ISSN: 1570-646X. DOI: 10.1007/s12053-015-9393-8.
• Beizaee, A, Allinson, D, Lomas, K, Foda, E, Loveday, D (2015) Measuring the potential of zonal space heating controls to reduce energy use in UK homes: the case of un-furbished 1930s dwellings, Energy and Buildings, 92, pp.29-44, ISSN: 0378-7788. DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.01.040.
• Taylor, SC, Firth, SK, Allinson, D, Quddus, M, Wang, C, Smith, P (2014) Spatial mapping of building energy demand in Great Britain, GCB Bioenergy, ISSN: 1757-1693. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12165.

Undergraduate

• Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer for Architectural Engineering Programme (Responsible Examiner)
• Indoor Air module for Architectural Engineering Programme
• Architectural Science and Advanced Technical Investigations for Architecture Programme
• Supervision of dissertations on topics aligned to my research interests

Postgraduate

• Socio-technical Perspectives: Theory and Methods for ERBE Programme (Responsible Examiner)
• Supervision of dissertations on topics aligned to my research interests

Recently completed projects

• Damp and Mould Risk Indicator, Build Test Solutions
• Overheating analysis: UK National Energy Follow Up Study (BEIS), BRE

Expertise in numerical modelling and simulation were developed during my subsequent PhD and PostDoc (Built Environment, University of Nottingham). Since joining Loughborough University, I have continued to combine measurement and modelling techniques to evaluate the performance of buildings, their systems and occupants. This has included evaluating the performance of buildings in large-scale field trials, developing the BERG's test houses with synthetic occupancy, designing the state-of-the-art Hygrothermal Test Facility in our laboratories, and using high quality data to assess the accuracy of models and to improve their predictions.

Professional affiliations

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Awards

• Loughborough University Teaching Innovation Award 2020
• CIBSE Carter Bronze medal 2020, best paper in the CIBSE technical journal
• ABCE School award 2019 (largest Enterprise Grant at Loughborough University)
• Loughborough University, Built Environment Beacon, Research awards, Research Paper of the year 2018

External activities

• PhD examination: University of Nottingham, University of Bath, UCL and Leeds Beckett University
• External examiner: MSc Facade Engineering, University of Western England, Bristol
• European Committee for Standardization Technical Committee: CEN/TC89 Working Group 13 “Thermal performance of buildings and building components”
• British Standards Institution subcommittee B/540/2- Building Performance–moisture
• Expert technical reviewer, including for CIBSE, DECC, BEIS, and all the major academic journals in my field

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

• The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
• Building Research Establishment (BRE)
• Halton Housing, Widness
• Building Performance and Sustainability Research Unit, Leeds Beckett University
• Physical Characterisation of Buildings group, University College London
• Build Test Solutions