The second half of the day continued with a presentation given by Mike Braband from Unite Group, looking from the client's perspective. He claimed that volumetric construction will make the whole construction process 40-50% quicker than traditional method. He also claimed that MMC will give lower preliminary cost and earlier revenue generation for end user.
In term of answering public's "pesimistic" about the long life expectancy, Mike has given a good news that galvanised steels structures, for example, has a design life in excess of 100 years. Mike also stated that Unite is trying to reduce the weight of the modules and panels they designed. However, unfortunately, he has not really been thinking of the impact that it may caused by this action. Reducing weight might means lower thermal mass, hence- as being pointed out by Professor Miller- will actually gained heat loss during winter, resulting in higher space heating costs.
Maybe, this implications can be solved by injecting a Warmcell or recycled newspaper insulation on-site rather than inserting/constructing an insulation in the factory this weight still can be reduced and house still achieving higher thermal comfort value. It might also be interesting to find out whether implementing underfloor heating system will create better thermal comfort than radiator.
In term of answering public's "pesimistic" about the long life expectancy, Mike has given a good news that galvanised steels structures, for example, has a design life in excess of 100 years. Mike also stated that Unite is trying to reduce the weight of the modules and panels they designed. However, unfortunately, he has not really been thinking of the impact that it may caused by this action. Reducing weight might means lower thermal mass, hence- as being pointed out by Professor Miller- will actually gained heat loss during winter, resulting in higher space heating costs.
Maybe, this implications can be solved by injecting a Warmcell or recycled newspaper insulation on-site rather than inserting/constructing an insulation in the factory this weight still can be reduced and house still achieving higher thermal comfort value. It might also be interesting to find out whether implementing underfloor heating system will create better thermal comfort than radiator.
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