BRE INSITE13 conference to tackle the topic of buildings’ energy efficiency

The BRE (Building Research Establishment) is actively involved in developing guidelines, standards and solutions whose ultimate goal is to increase comfort, safety, health and wellbeing, and help people reduce their energy bills.

Unfortunately, the BRE also acknowledges the fact that there is a gap between the expected energy-efficiency of buildings and their actual performance. Understanding how people use energy and what influences their energy use behavior is an extremely important issues since, after all, buildings don't use energy, the occupants do. Changing the way people behave is critical and the design of buildings and the technologies in them can influence this behavior change.

For this reason, the focus of the BRE INSITE13 event, hosted by BRE Watford on the 2'nd and 3'rd of October, will be on people and the way they influence the energy consumption levels across buildings.

The event is divided into four different sections, each tackling a different issue. The first session focuses on behavioral change, highlighting the key issues that enable behavioral change, an understanding of human factors and social science. It will address issues such as energy efficiency and comfort and post occupancy evaluation.

The second session will deal with communities, highlighting the importance of community engagement in creating sustainable communities and examining issues such as government policy, assessment methods and bringing empty homes and open spaces back into use.

The following session will tackle the impact of buildings on people and health, highlighting the key issues around making existing buildings healthy and safe, addressing issues around fuel poverty and an ageing population.

The last session will get a deeper insight into the topic of technology, meaning that this session highlights the key issues around the continuously evolving needs of end users and the technologies that are being developed to meet these needs, whether it's creating connected buildings, or future-proofing against obsolescence.

As part of the conference, attendees will also be able to visit the newly refurbished BRE Smart Home (formerly known as Integer house), as well the rest of the energy-efficient buildings on the site.