A quiet revolution: Mapping energy use in low carbon communities

Recent Government funding in the UK has enabled 22 low carbon community organisations to work with the private and academic sector to understand and reduce energy consumption in domestic and non-domestic buildings. This has helped communities prepare for policy mechanisms such as the national Green Deal programme which aims to improve existing housing and non-domestic buildings by offering up-front loans to be repaid by energy savings. This paper presents the role and application of a unique carbon mapping approach, which has enabled five of these low carbon communities to rapidly assess on a house-by-house level, the potential for improving the energy efficiency of their housing stock. DECoRuM, an award-winning GIS-based carbon counting model is used to measure, model, map and manage energy use and CO2 emission reductions from approximately 1,300 houses across five communities, displaying estimates of energy use and carbon emissions before and after community action. Incremental packages of energy saving measures and low carbon technologies are assessed for their impact on CO2 emissions to reveal further potential for large-scale refurbishment in the local area. Eligibility for the Green Deal is tested to show that on average 72 per cent of homes over all communities are suitable for finance. Through community events, results are visualised and fed back to the householders using colour-coded spatial maps along with thermal imaging. Findings from this study are relevant for policy-making and practitioners engaged in area-based carbon reductions

Spatially-based urban energy modelling approach for enabling energy retrofits in Oxfordshire

The UK government has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This will require a transformation of the housing sector as it has lagged previous emissions targets. Although millions of existing homes across the UK need energy improvements, the process of identifying suitable and eligible homes is presently a time-consuming task and energy suppliers are struggling to meet their targets. To address this challenge, this paper describes the application of a data-driven geographical information system-based approach to spatially identify suitable dwellings quickly and accurately by mapping and modelling baseline energy use and potential for energy retrofit measures, singularly and in combination. Drawing on publicly available datasets on housing and energy, combined with local datasets, a neighbourhood with high fuel poverty in Bicester (Oxfordshire, UK) was selected. The DECoRuM model was then used to estimate current energy use and potential for energy reduction on a house-by-house level. The improvement measures were aggregated to encourage bulk installations and drive down installation costs. House-level energy assessment in the selected area using DECoRuM shows that a package-based approach comprising building fabric and heating system upgrade and solar PVs is effective at significantly reducing energy consumption and energy bills, as well as fuel poverty. This spatially based urban energy modelling approach brings together energy calculations and spatial mapping to address the barriers to mass retrofit programmes. The data collected can also be used to build brokering services amongst those who need energy improvements (households) with those can provide retrofit measures (installers) and those can sponsor energy measures (energy suppliers)

Early, late or never? When does parental education impact child outcomes?

We study the intergenerational effects of parents’ education on their children’s educational outcomes. The endogeneity of parental education is addressed by exploiting the exogenous shift in education levels induced by the 1972 Raising of the School Leaving Age (RoSLA) from age 15 to 16 in England and Wales. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children – a rich cohort dataset of children born in the early 1990s in Avon, England – allows us to examine the timing of impacts throughout the child’s life, from pre-school assessments through the school years to the final exams at the end of the compulsory schooling period. We also determine whether there are differential effects for literacy and numeracy. We find that increasing parental education has a positive causal effect on children’s outcomes that is evident at age 4 and continues to be visible up to and including the high stakes exams taken at age 16. Children of parents affected by the reform gain results just under 0.1 standard deviations higher than those whose parents were not impacted. The effect is focused on the lower educated parents where we would expect there to be more of an impact: children of these parents gaining results approximately 0.2 standard deviations higher. The effects appear to be broadly equal across numeracy and literacy test scores

Meta-analysis of summertime indoor temperatures in newly-built, retrofitted and existing UK dwellings

This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis of hourly indoor summertime temperature datasets gathered during the summer of 2013 (May to September), from 63 dwellings, located across the UK. The sample consisted of unmodified dwellings (existing); dwellings with varying levels of fabric improvements (retrofitted) and dwellings constructed to higher levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes (new). Indoor and outdoor temperature data from bedrooms and living rooms from these homes were collected at five-minute intervals using temperature sensors. These data were processed and analysed for summertime overheating, using both static criteria (CIBSE Guide A) and the criteria associated with the EN15251 adaptive thermal comfort model (CIBSE TM52). The results show that despite a relatively cool summer, sufficiently high temperatures were found in a high proportion of dwellings, which were overheated according to the static criteria, although the prevalence of overheating was found to be much lower when assessed by the adaptive method. Considerably higher temperatures were found in bedrooms, much higher than living rooms. Interestingly, dwellings with higher levels of insulation experienced overheating twice as frequently as uninsulated dwellings. It is necessary to consider the overheating risk during the design and retrofit of homes, to avoid air-conditioning in future

Empirical assessment of summertime overheating risk in new, retrofitted and existing UK dwellings

This paper statistically assesses the hourly internal summertime temperature datasets gathered during the summer of 2013 (May to September), from 63 dwellings across the UK. The sample consisted of unmodified dwellings (existing); dwellings with varying levels of fabric improvements (retrofitted) and dwellings constructed to higher levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes (new). Indoor and outdoor temperature data from bedrooms and living rooms from these homes were collected at five-minute intervals using temperature sensors. These data were processed and analysed for summertime overheating, using both static criteria (CIBSE Guide A) and the criteria associated with the EN15251 adaptive thermal comfort model (CIBSE TM52). The results show that despite a relatively cool summer, sufficiently high temperatures were found in a high proportion of dwellings, which were found to be overheated according to the CIBSE static temperature criteria, although the prevalence of overheating was found to be much lower when assessed by the adaptive method. Considerably higher temperatures were found in bedrooms, much higher than living rooms. Interestingly, dwellings with higher levels of insulation experienced overheating twice as frequently as uninsulated dwellings. Given the prevalence of overheating found across the sample, it is necessary to carefully consider this risk during the design and retrofit of homes, to avoid the growth of domestic air-conditioning in future

Care provision fit for a warming climate

The impact of a warming climate has serious implications for older people in care facilities as they are most vulnerable to negative health effects of excessive heat. This paper uses a building simulation approach to examine the current and future risk of summertime overheating and potential adaptive response of four care and extra-care settings representing different construction, technical design and built ages across the UK. Insights from semi-structured interviews with design teams of case studies reveal their awareness and attitudes towards future-proofing design of care settings against climate change and overheating. Modelling results demonstrate the magnitude of projected summertime overheating in care and extra-care schemes, yet there appears to be little awareness amongst designers about the risk of overheating and implementation of long-term adaptation approaches such as external shading, provision of cross-ventilation. Although age, location, and orientation are found to have notable effect on the magnitude of overheating, they are difficult aspects to change in existing buildings, yet they provide insights into adaptive responses with regard to retrofit, management and use of care settings. Designers also need to focus on long term planning of care settings rather than near future, to anticipate the effects of climate change on care settings