STRATHCLYDE-UNIVERSITY PASSIVE SOLAR, LOW-ENERGY, RESIDENCES WITH TRANSPARENT INSULATION

These innovative buildings for 376 students are described from plannin g to the results of 3 years monitoring. They are to date the World's l argest demonstration of Transparent Insulation, being a Demonstration Project supported by the European Community and Scottish Enterprise. T he factors considered are: design, construction, occupation, comfort, energy characteristics, performance of the Transparent Insulation, inc luding staining by pollution, overall energy consumption, cost effecti veness, practical aspects and important lessons learned. Monitoring sh ows that commercial energy use is 40% less than the ''good'' category of official UK indicators and a survey quantifies encouraging user sat isfaction generally. The solar fraction of useful gain in winter is 20 % of total energy. The south faces of the building have a monthly net gain of energy into the building throughout the year even in mid winte r in Glasgow.