Reflections on retrofits: Overcoming barriers to energy efficiency among the fuel poor in the United Kingdom

To meet targets on fuel poverty, energy efficiency and carbon emissions existing homes need to be more energy efficient. We report the results of a participatory action research project to explore the challenges associated with energy efficiency retrofit programmes and ways to better implement future schemes. Six focus groups were held with 48 participants from a range of energy efficiency roles. Data were analysed thematically using the research question “What are the challenges presented by implementing energy efficiency retrofit programmes”. We identified four themes in the data: Funding mechanisms; Predicting performance; Installation; and People. Challenges include funding mechanisms for retrofit programmes resulting in insufficient time to plan, publicise, implement and evaluate a scheme and insufficient flexibility to specify the most appropriate intervention for individual homes. Site workers sometimes need to adapt retrofit designs because of insufficient detail from the designer and can equate quality of installation with quality of finish. Landlords and occupier behaviour can impact on the programme's success and there is a need for greater information on benefits for landlords and for energy behaviour change interventions run alongside retrofit programmes for occupiers. There is a need for outcome evaluations of retrofit schemes with the results shared with stakeholders

Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic had wide-ranging effects on how people lived, worked and learned. Consequently, electricity use was altered from pre-pandemic patterns. The deviation from expected electricity usage patterns in commercial properties due to the Covid-19 pandemic was analyzed in a medium-sized American city. The focus on a single community (1) allows usage to be linked specifically to the timing of public health and executive orders; and (2) provides a fine-grained, detailed understanding of usage in different property classifications (e.g. restaurants, hotels, schools, outpatient medical facilities, offices, and religious organizations). Electricity consumption data from 2019, adjusted for average daily temperature, were used to calculate expected use in 2020. Electricity usage was found to be lower than expected for most commercial property classes, but the timing and magnitude of these effects varied. For example, within the hospitality industry, hotels evidenced a larger and more sustained decrease in usage (–17%) as compared with restaurants (–11%). In addition, usage patterns for outpatient medical facilities can be linked to specific executive orders. Together, a heterogenous rate of electricity use is found to vary according to specific types of commercial properties. Practice relevance In much of the research regarding electricity usage, utility customers are placed into the broad categories of residential, commercial and industrial. These groups are viewed as homogeneous. This study examined different property classes within the commercial group during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although electricity usage was lower than expected for most commercial property classes, the timing and magnitude of these effects varied. For example, within the hospitality industry, hotels evidenced a larger and more sustained decrease in usage than did restaurants. In addition, usage patterns for outpatient medical facilities were linked to specific executive orders. Together, these data sources allowed for a detailed examination of Covid-19’s effect on electricity use for specific types of commercial properties and it revealed that their response to the pandemic varied widely. Thus, it is an oversimplification to view commercial properties as a single, homogeneous group

Cigarette smoking and reasons for leaving school among school dropouts in South Africa

School dropouts are at heightened risk of tobacco use compared to in-school learners. School dropouts are described as those not currently enrolled in school for the academic year, have not completed their schooling, and are between 13 and 20 years old. This paper examines the relationship between reasons for leaving school and past month cigarette smoking, taking into account gender differences.Multiple logistic regression was used to analyse survey data (n = 4185). Geographical location was also incorporated into the analysis as effect moderators

Distal and proximal family predictors of adolescents' smoking initiation and development: A longitudinal latent curve model analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies on adolescent smoking indicate that the smoking behaviours of their parents, siblings and friends are significant micro-level predictors. Parents' socioeconomic status (SES) is an important macro-level predictor. We examined the longitudinal relationships between these predictors and the initiation and development of adolescents' smoking behaviour in Norway.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We employed data from <it>The Norwegian Longitudinal Health Behaviour Study (NLHB)</it>, in which participants were followed from the age of 13 to 30. We analysed data from the first 5 waves, covering the age span from 13 to 18, with latent curve modeling (LCM).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Smoking rates increased from 3% to 31% from age 13 to age 18. Participants' smoking was strongly associated with their best friends' smoking. Parental SES, parents' smoking and older siblings' smoking predicted adolescents' initial level of smoking. Furthermore, the same variables predicted the development of smoking behaviour from age 13 to 18. Parents' and siblings' smoking behaviours acted as mediators of parents' SES on the smoking habits of adolescents.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Parents' SES was significantly associated, directly and indirectly, with both smoking initiation and development. Parental and older siblings' smoking behaviours were positively associated with both initiation and development of smoking behaviour in adolescents. There were no significant gender differences in these associations.</p

School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students’ Smoking Status?

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behavior using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51% female) Grade 10–11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy. The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included lower school connectedness, a greater number of family and friends who smoked, higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence, lower perceptions of student smoking frequency, and stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context. School-level variables associated with student smoking included weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction, weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement, and a higher number of students smoking on school property. These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use

Electric Energy Management in the Smart Home: Perspectives on Enabling Technologies and Consumer Behavior: Preprint

Smart homes hold the potential for increasing energy efficiency, decreasing costs of energy use, decreasing the carbon footprint by including renewable resources, and transforming the role of the occupant. At the crux of the smart home is an efficient electric energy management system that is enabled by emerging technologies in the electric grid and consumer electronics. This article presents a discussion of the state-of-the-art in electricity management in smart homes, the various enabling technologies that will accelerate this concept, and topics around consumer behavior with respect to energy usage

Data_Sheet_1_Contextual factors in local energy policy choices: comparative case of solar energy policy in two cities.pdf

Numerous recent calls have been made for policy design research to embed itself throughout the policy process and explore avenues for matching tools and targets. These calls have argued that policy design research, while emphasizing the content and the choice of design, has been under-leveraged, particularly in exploring rationales for effectiveness. In this paper, we conduct a comparative case study to explore variation in participation rates for two similarly categorized solar policies across two mid-sized cities. In this regard, three contextual factors are examined, including the population characteristics, the existing configuration of policies, and the physical environment, which all contribute to shaping policy effectiveness. We argue that policy design is situated within an explicit context and that without capturing the context, the effectiveness of policies may not translate if diffused.</p

Children's differentiation between ingratiation and self-promotion

Previous research has demonstrated that 10-year-olds can provide interpersonal explanations for certain self-presentational tactics, but detailed information about the development of their understanding of these tactics is lacking.This research investigated children’s understanding of the processes involved in ingratiation (used to indicate likeability) and self-promotion (used to indicate competence). In the first study, with a sample of 60 children aged six to 11 years, children saw ingratiation as leading to more positive social evaluation than self-promotion, which was seen as having a more concrete, instrumental function. Additionally, children’s differentiation between ingratiation and self-promotion was correlated with their level of peer preference, as determined through sociometric nominations, particularly for boys. In a second study, with a sample of 63 children aged six to 11 years, it was found that audience type (peer vs. adult) was related to children’s understanding of the self-presentational tactics: children offered more social evaluation justifications for a self-promotion tactic when the audience was a peer rather than an adult. Results are discussed with reference to emerging insights into the links between peer relations and social cognition