FOCUS DIGITAL WORKPLACE
TWIN BENEFITS
Our built environment and its construction
have a tremendous role to play in helping the
UK meet its carbon dioxide emission reduction
targets. We know that buildings have a colossal
impact on global carbon emissions. The United
Nations Environmental Programme: 2019 Global
Status Report for Buildings and Construction(i)
figures indicated that as much as 39 per cent
of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions
can be laid solely at the door of buildings and
construction.
Here in the UK the government has set the target of
reducing carbon emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2050.
Digital twinning will be a very important tool in
helping all those involved in the design, construction,
occupation and management of buildings to deliver
those e iciencies.
The digital twin concept revolves around the
connect between the physical and digital versions
of a building. The digital replica reflects exactly the
model of the physical version in terms of design and
construction and represents – in digital terms – all
the building services; lighting, HVAC, mechanical and
electrical installations, controls and commissioning
throughout. This digital facsimile can play its part in
helping us understand how buildings work - and how
26 SEPTEMBER 2020
we can manage and design them more e iciently.
Presently it appears energy modelling and design
decisions are mostly taken around the concept of
compliance – meeting building regulation standards,
hitting (Energy Performance Certificate) EPC(ii)
targets etc – but even with a building hitting these
benchmarks, its performance in practice may be
wildly di erent to that expected, as we’ve seen in
(Display Energy Certificates) DEC’s vs EPC’s(iii).
COMPLIANCE MODEL
When you build a compliance model(iv) it doesn’t
necessarily reflect the future performance of the
operational building. There is a gap between the
designed performance and actual performance of
a building which can lead to a lot of confusion for
stakeholders when it operates using a completely
di erent energy usage. Here in lies the issue around
compliance led design verses performance led
design.
A digital twin enables you to move away from
compliance modelling and instead try to accurately
model the building as it will run once in operation.
The full complexities of mechanical systems can be
plugged into the model alongside other technical
design information, more realistic user profiles, and
potentially data from the ‘Internet of Things’. Not only
does this mean that anytime anything changes during
construction we can understand what impact it might
have on the building during operation, but also that
this digital model can be used to understand why a
building is not behaving as it should.
Faults happen very easily when buildings are
in operation – someone might have turned the
thermostat o , the lighting might not be working
correctly or HVAC controls not set properly – so we
can use the digital model as the ideal to help service
engineers and FM teams compare, meet and maintain
a building’s energy and carbon emission performance
as well as ensuring the occupants remain
comfortable. A digital twin helps reduce carbon
emissions through the design process and also during
operation. It gives much more useful information
to the design team than a compliance model and
encourages performance beyond compliance linked
to actual fuel bills and interrogation.
ENERGY MODELLING
There are hopes that the use of digital twins and
operational models can be included alongside a
review of the current compliance methodology for
energy modelling. For instance, SBEM (Simplified
Building Energy Model)(v), is a new so ware tool
developed by BRE that provides an analysis of a
building’s energy consumption. Incorporating digital
twinning into SBEM could really improve it and
although infrastructure that o ers any peer review
of incorporating digital twins into those models is
lacking, it is an area where HDR | Hurley Palmer Flatt
are frontrunners.
The full incorporation of digital twins into
compliance methodology might be a goal for the
future but under certification schemes and guidance
such as CIBSE’s Technical Memorandum 54(vi), their
use can be brought further to the fore.
More enlightened developer clients are starting
to recognise the advantages that digital twins can
bring to their projects and building portfolio. Not
only can they ensure their buildings perform at their
most e icient, those advantages can be passed on to
their clients and tenants, theoretically making their
developments more attractive and easier to sell or let.
RETROFITTING
A building’s age is no hurdle for a digital twin.
Refurbishment o ers tremendous potential for
delivering savings through digital twin methodology
– both financial and carbon related.
When carrying out a refurbishment project
designers and engineers typically want to remove
and renew anything that is close to its end date.
Now we can build a digital twin and use it to see
how much energy they can save from day one, by
using their existing services more e iciently. Then
the project teams will have to prove their proposals
deliver considerable betterment. If a digital twin is
deployed on a new build think how much easier it will
be to consider planned maintenance and options for
refurbishment on the road to net-zero carbon.
in order to deliver those gains true net-zero carbon
planning needs to move away from compliance tools
and into a more structured assessment such as CIBSE
TM54 or Build for Performance.
We should use digital twin not only for the
betterment it delivers but also because the building
assessment systems we are using now are not
necessarily the most e ective or most accurate for all
buildings. Compliance has its place, but performance
led design needs to be a major part of the process if
we are to get it right for 2050. A erall, compliance led
design is traditionally based on historical data so why
not make that data more readily available, up to date
and accurate.
Looking to improve the effi ciency of your building stock? A digital twin could be the
answer, according to HDR | Hurley Palmer Flatt’s Paul Scriven and Dr Annie Marston
REFERENCE NOTES
(i) www.worldgbc.org/news-media/2019-global-statusreport
buildings-and-construction
(ii) www.ndepcregister.com/
(iii) www.gov.uk/check-energy-performance-public-building
(iv) www.cibse.org/knowledge/knowledge-items/
detail?id=a0q20000008JeYXAA0
(v) www.bre.co.uk/page.jsp?id=706
(vi) www.cibse.org/Knowledge/knowledge-items/
detail?id=a0q20000008I7f7AAC
/detail?id=a0q20000008JeYXAA0
/
/check-energy-performance-public-building
/2019-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction
/page.jsp?id=706
/detail?id=a0q20000008I7f7AAC
