Symbolic energy estimation model with optimum start algorithm implementation

The drive to reduce carbon emissions and energy utilisation, directly associated with dwellings and to achieve a zero carbon home, suggests that the assessment of energy ratings will have an increasingly prioritised role in the built environment. Created by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is the UK Government’s recommended method of assessing the energy ratings of dwellings. This paper describes a new, simplified dynamic method (hence known as IDEAS – Inverse Dynamics based Energy Analysis and Simulation) of assessing the controllability of a building and its servicing systems. The IDEAS method produces results that are comparable to SAP. An Optimum Start algorithm is explored in this paper to allow heating systems of different responsiveness and size to be integrated into the IDEAS framework. Results suggest that this design approach could enhance the SAP Methodology by the addition of advanced systems controllability and dynamic values

Booms, Busts and Ripples in British Regional Housing Markets

We present and discuss an annual econometric model of regional house prices in Britain estimated over the period 1972 to 2003. The model, which consists of a system of inverted housing demand equations, is data consistent, incorporates spatial lags and errors, has some spatial coefficient heterogeneity, has a plausible long run solution and includes a full range of explanatory variables. We use our results to explain the periods of boom and bust and the ripple effect from London house prices to house prices elsewhere. We also address the issue of whether there has been a bubble in the British housing marketHouse Prices; Ripple Effect; Bubble

A simplified dynamic systems approach for the energy rating of dwellings

The drive to reduce carbon emissions and energy utilisation, directly associated with dwellings and to achieve a zero carbon home, suggests that the assessment of energy ratings will have an increasingly prioritised role in the built environment. Created by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is the UK Government’s recommended method of assessing the energy ratings of dwellings. This paper describes a new, simplified dynamic method (hence known as IDEAS – Inverse Dynamics based Energy Analysis and Simulation) of assessing the controllability of a building and its servicing systems. The IDEAS method produces SAP Comparable results. Results suggest this design approach could enhance the SAP Methodology by the addition of advanced systems controllability and dynamic values

Enhancement of the UK Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) solar water heating prediction algorithm using parametric dynamical thermal simulations

SAP is the UK Government’s method for calculation of a dwelling’s energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions. This paper presents a method of informing the SAP procedure regarding evaluation of the advantage given to SAP ratings by installation of typical domestic Solar Domestic Hot Water (SDHW) systems. Comparable SDHW systems were simulated using the dynamic thermal simulation package TRNSYS and results were translated into empirical relations in a form that could be input into the SAP calculation procedure. Findings were compared against the current SAP algorithm and differences explained. Results suggest that calculation variances can exist between the SAP methodology and detailed dynamic thermal simulation methods. This is especially true for higher performance systems that can deviate greatly from default efficiency parameters. This might be due to SAP algorithms being historically based on older systems that have lower efficiencies. An enhancement to the existing SAP algorithm is suggested

Praying for Clarity: \u3cem\u3eLund\u3c/em\u3e, \u3cem\u3eBormuth\u3c/em\u3e, and the Split Over Legislator-Led Prayer

On September 6, 2017, the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit released its opinion in Bormuth v. County of Jackson, finding prayers offered by the Jackson County Board of Commissioners constitutional under the Establishment Clause. That decision involved detailed factual analysis, which varied greatly from the analysis used by the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to find nearly identical prayers by the Rowan County Board of Commissioners unconstitutional in Lund v. Rowan County on July 14, 2017. This Comment argues that the method of analysis conducted by the en banc Fourth Circuit in Lund is the more comprehensive and, therefore proper, method of factual analysis contemplated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Town of Greece v. Galloway. In contrast, the analysis employed by the en banc Sixth Circuit’s decision in Bormuth fails to fully consider the challenged practice, and is therefore flawed

St. Jerome\u27s \u3ci\u3eNarnia\u3c/i\u3e: Transformation and Asceticism in the Desert and Beyond the Wardrobe

Compares “two exercises in Christian myth-making”—C.S. Lewis’s Narniad and The Life of Paul the Hermit, the earliest work of the ascetic St. Jerome. Both are entertaining, and even whimsical at times, and feature communication with intelligent animals and a restoration of Paradise. Both also feature characters who model the value of asceticism and the solitary contemplative life