Plastic Electronics to Building Products – Polysolar Building Integrated Transparent Solar Glass

Market understanding, long term commitment and collaboration again emerge as the critical factors in successful innovation in the sector. We caught up with Hamish Watson, inventor of the Polysolar Building Integrated Transparent Solar Glass. Polysolar has developed the world’s first completely transparent low-cost photovoltaic (PV) glazing that can generate electricity with around 20% light transmission … Continue reading “Plastic Electronics to Building Products – Polysolar Building Integrated Transparent Solar Glass”

From Bridges to Robots – The Facility’s Innovation Journey

In our latest innovation interview, supported by the Knowledge Transfer Network, we caught up with Oliver Schneider from innovation-led architectural practice The Facility. The Facility started in the early 1990s as a traditional architecture practice. Oliver’s passion for finding ways to do things differently has led him to take the practice in a different direction, … Continue reading “From Bridges to Robots – The Facility’s Innovation Journey”

The Hive: Facility to test resilience of sustainable materials

The Hive aims to answer some of the fundamental questions affecting the resilience and performance of sustainable materials.  The research facility opened in September 2014 on land leased from the Science Museum and funding from EPSRC. Video Interview with Dr Mike Lawrence from the BRE Centre for Innovative Materials at the University of Bath The … Continue reading “The Hive: Facility to test resilience of sustainable materials”

Driving safety and performance for photovoltaic systems

We caught up with Steve Pester, Principal Consultant from the BRE National Solar Centre to find out how work funded by the BRE Trust is helping improve safety and performance of photovoltaic systems. The research found that minor components installed incorrectly can lead to poor performance and safety issues in photovoltaic systems.  This was then … Continue reading “Driving safety and performance for photovoltaic systems”

The full cost of poor housing

Research from BRE reveals the £18.6 billion cost of leaving England’s housing homes unimproved. Although we’ve largely eradicated the diseases associated with the slums of the Victorian era in developed countries like England, there remain a significant number of health and safety hazards in the home.  This is compounded by the fact that the UK … Continue reading “The full cost of poor housing”

IOBAC Interview – Collaboration and understanding your market the recipe for successful innovation

In the first of our series of six interviews looking at the innovation process we talked to Ian Spreadborough, MD of magnetised flooring company IOBAC. BRE first met IOBAC when the participated and won the Knowledge Transfer Network’s Innovation Zone at Ecobuild 2012. IOBAC’s technology takes standard forms of installing flooring and simplifies this into … Continue reading “IOBAC Interview – Collaboration and understanding your market the recipe for successful innovation”

Visual alarm devices – their effectiveness in warning of fire

How effective are Xenon and LED VADs? The effectiveness of Xenon and LED visual alarm devices (VADs), used to warn deaf and hard of hearing people of fire, has been investigated in a recently completed research project. The purpose of this research project was to compare the responses of a group of participants to flashing … Continue reading “Visual alarm devices – their effectiveness in warning of fire”

Bridging the Performance Gap

Watch our latest video where BRE researcher Andy Lewry discusses how to Bridge the Performance Gap Building Operators need clear and realistic guidance on targeting energy running costs and on the potential savings available. At their disposal are two seemingly irreconcilable indicators of performance: the EPC which provides a theoretical assessment of the asset and … Continue reading “Bridging the Performance Gap”