Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Professor David Johnston
Professor
David is a Professor of Building Performance Evaluation within Leeds Sustainability Institute. He has almost 30 years’ experience of applied and theoretical research and consultancy in low carbon housing and is one of the UK’s leading experts in coheating testing and Building Performance Evaluation (BPE). He has led and managed numerous field trial projects in both new and existing dwellings, involving detailed in-use monitoring of energy consumption, the analysis of occupant behaviour and detailed evaluations of the fabric and services performance of domestic buildings.
In recent years, his research has concentrated on the building fabric thermal ‘performance gap’. Professor Johnston’s work in this area has involved developing methodological approaches to assessing the fabric performance of dwellings (for instance, development of the Coheating Test Method), exploring the techniques that can be used to quantify the size of the ‘performance gap’, identifying the reasons why this ‘gap’ is important and examining the various factors that contribute to the ‘gap’. The findings from his work have been used by various stakeholders to inform their design and construction practices and help them understand how they can begin to close the ‘performance gap’. The findings have also been used at policy level to inform future revisions of the UK Building Regulations and to develop new European Standards.
David has contributed to a number of important industry groups, such as the Zero Carbon Hub Working Group WG5b and the Air Tightness Testing and Measurement Association (ATTMA) Registered Testers Scheme. He is currently the only academic member of the Caravan Industry Renewable Energy Working Group and a member of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) TM23 Forum. He is also an expert member of BSI B/540/9 and currently the Chair of CEN Technical Committee 89 Working Group 13. As part of his CEN Chair role, he has been working with European Colleagues to develop new European (CEN) standards relating to the performance testing of buildings.
He has authored numerous reports and has produced almost fifty peer reviewed publications. He has also co-authored publications with European colleagues, most notably Wolfgang Feist, the co-founder of the Passivhaus Institute in Germany. He has also guest edited a number of Special Issues for various academic journals. David also regularly peer review papers for a number of leading academic construction journals and has recently peer reviewed CIBSE TM23, which provides Building Regulation guidance on testing buildings for air leakage, and a guide on thermal bypassing produced by the Passivhaus Trust. He also has externally examined PhD’s at a number of universities and has assessed various Readership and Professorial applications.
Current Teaching
David teaches on a wide variety of Built Environment courses including:
- Architectural Technology
- Building Services Engineering
- Building Surveying
- Quantity Surveying and Construction Management
Specific areas include:
- Airtightness
- Building performance evaluation
- Building science
- Building services
- Construction technology
- Low carbon housing thermal bridging
- Sustainable buildings
Research Interests
Specific research interests include:
- Airtightness
- Building performance evaluation
- Climate change and energy use
- Coheating testing
- Energy and carbon dioxide emission modelling of the UK housing stock
- Energy and environmental monitoring of buildings
- Thermal comfort
- Low carbon housing
- Sustainability and the built environment
Ask Me About
- Construction
- Construction and the developing world
- Sustainability
Selected Outputs
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Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D (2009) Airtightness of UK dwellings.
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Farmer D; Gorse C; Swan W; Fitton R; Brooke-Peat M; Miles-Shenton D; Johnston D (In press) Measuring thermal performance in steady-state conditions at each stage of a full fabric retrofit to a solid wall dwelling. Energy and Buildings
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Johnston DK; Glew D; Miles-Shenton D; Benjaber M; Fitton R (In press) Quantifying the performance a passive deaerator in a gas-fired closed loop domestic wet central heating system. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology: an international journal
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Parker JM; Farmer D; Johnston D; Fletcher M; Thomas F; Gorse C; Stenlund S (2019) Measuring and modelling retrofit fabric performance in solid wall conjoined dwellings. Energy and Buildings, 185 pp. 49-65.
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Johnston DK; Miles-Shenton D (2017) The airtightness and air leakage characteristics of new UK holiday homes. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology
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Fletcher MJ; Johnston DK; Glew D; Parker J (2017) An empirical evaluation of temporal overheating in an assisted living Passivhaus dwelling in the UK. Building and Environment, 121 pp. 106-118.
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Marshall A; Fitton R; Swan W; Farmer D; Johnston DK; Benjaber M; JI Y (2017) Domestic building fabric performance: Closing the gap between the in situ measured and modelled performance. Energy and Buildings, 150 pp. 307-317.
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Johnston DK; Farmer D; Miles-Shenton D (2016) Quantifying the aggregate thermal performance of UK holiday homes. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology
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Farmer D; Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D (2016) Obtaining the heat loss coefficient of a dwelling using its heating system (integrated coheating). Energy and Buildings, 117 pp. 1-10.
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Gorse CA; Thomas F; Miles-Shenton D; Farmer D; Glew D; Johnston D (2016) Understanding Building Performance: Implications of heat loss and air permeability on building control. Zero Carbon Building
http://www.cic.hk/cic_data/pdf/zcb/eng/ZCB-Issue04-2016-02-19.pdf
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Stafford A; Johnston D (2016) Estimating the Background Ventilation Rates in New-Build UK Dwellings – is n50/20 appropriate?. Indoor and Built Environment
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Johnston DK; Siddall M (2016) The Building Fabric Thermal Performance of Passivhaus Dwellings - Does It Do What it Says on the Tin?. Sustainability, 8 (1),
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Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D; Farmer D; Brooke-Peat M (2015) Post-construction thermal testing: Some recent measurements. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability, 168 (3), pp. 131-139.
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Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D; Farmer D (2015) Quantifying the domestic building fabric 'performance gap'. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 36 (5), pp. 614-627.
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Johnston D; Farmer D; Brooke-Peat M; Miles-Shenton D (2014) Bridging the domestic building fabric performance gap. BUILDING RESEARCH AND INFORMATION, 44 (2), pp. 147-159.
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Gorse C; Sutton R; Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D (2011) Heat loss through the building fabric: Low carbon construction practice. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, ARCOM 2011 - Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference, 2 pp. 1075-1084.
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Gorse CA; Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D (2011) Low Carbon Housing in the UK: Analysis of Construction Practice. Architecture Science, 2011 (3), pp. 55-68.
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Johnston D; Wingfield J; Miles-Shenton D (2010) Measuring the fabric performance of UK dwellings. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, ARCOM 2010 - Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference, pp. 1371-1380.
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Roberts D; Johnston D; Isle JA (2005) A novel approach to achieving airtightness in drylined load-bearing masonry dwellings. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 26 (1), pp. 63-69.
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Johnston D; Lowe R; Bell M (2005) An exploration of the technical feasibility of achieving CO2 emission reductions in excess of 60% within the UK housing stock by the year 2050. Energy Policy, 33 (13), pp. 1643-1659.
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Lowe R; Johnston D; Bell M (2000) Review of possible implications of an airtightness standard for new dwellings in the UK. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 21 (1), pp. 27-34.
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Peat M; Johnston D; Miles-Shenton D; Farmer D (2013) Post Construction and Early Occupation Study, Lancaster Co-housing Development – Design Review Report [Online]. Leeds: Technology Strategy Board / Leeds Metropolitan University.
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Johnston DK; Miles-Shenton D; Wingfield J; Farmer D; Bell M (2012) Whole House Heat Loss Test Method (Coheating) [Online]. Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK: Centre for the Built Environment (CeBE).
Available from: http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/as/cebe/projects/iea_annex58/whole_house_heat_loss_test_method(coheating).pdf
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Johnston DK; Miles-Shenton D; Bell M; Wingfield J (2011) Airtightness of buildings — towards higher performance: Final Report — Domestic Sector Airtightness [Online]. Department for Communities and Local Government.
Available from: http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/as/cebe/projects/airtight/airtight_final_report.pdf
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Gorse C; Johnston D; Pritchard M (2012) A Dictionary of Construction, Surveying and Civil Engineering.
