The Active Building Centre Research Programme is researching and developing innovative tools and technologies that will ensure buildings of all scales contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions and a more sustainable built environment.

Active Building Centre Reasearch Platofrm - Technology
Technology
Active Building Centre Reasearch Platofrm - Data & Monitoring
Data & Monitoring
Active Building Centre Reasearch Platofrm - Socioeconomics & User Engagement
Socioeconomics & User Engagement
Active Building Centre Reasearch Platofrm - Modeling & Tools
Modeling & Tools
Active Building Centre Reasearch Platofrm - Demonstrator Projects
Demonstrator Projects

Recent News
How do developer expectations impact on resident experiences?

Developers’ expectations for residents can have implications for design decisions. This in turn can influence how residents experience and live within the homes, in this piece, we look at this in a bit more detail.
Storing heat to cut energy bills and boost renewables

The Active Building Centre Research Programme (ABC-RP), led by Swansea University and working with consortium partners Loughborough University, University of Sheffield and Mixergy Ltd, has secured UK Government funding for a preliminary feasibility study to investigate the potential benefits of longer duration thermal energy storage in supporting the UK’s transition to net zero.
Strengthening the connection: Living Well in Low Carbon Homes and the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015 the United Nations announced its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development within which 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) are identified. This agenda, agreed by all member states, reflects an overarching ambition for “peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. The agenda highlights that across the globe, while our specific contexts may differ, we all share the same foundational needs and that we are interconnected in multiple ways.
Learning from data: intelligent heating systems

The 6th Carbon Budget, released in December 2020, sets out national decarbonisation pathways to 2050 across all sectors. Following these pathways, we can expect an installation rate of about 415,000 heat pumps per year by 2025, rising to over 1 million installations per year by 2030. Electrification of space heating is gathering pace, and with it, intelligent energy management is moving from being beneficial to being necessary to ensure the resilience of the power grid.
ABC-RP have contributed to guidelines expected to kick-start the market for retrofit passports

These are, or at least should be, commonly made arguments now; buildings account for around 20% of UK carbon emissions and an estimated 80% of the homes which we will live in 2050 have already been built. The task of getting to net zero is a challenging one, but a new tool, developed collaboratively, aims to help individual and organisational property owners to better understand and improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
Energy sector digitisation and net zero

Dr Sara Walker, director of the Centre for Energy at Newcastle University, and Dr Zoya Pourmirza, theme lead of security and resilience, have contributed to the UK Government consultation on Energy Sector Digitalisation POSTnote.