Household thermal routines and their impact on space heating demand patterns

Patterns of home heating demand during the day have significant implications for the design of energy networks and will be an important consideration in the introduction of low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps. In homes in the UK it is very common to operate space heating intermittently; the heating is usually switched off when the occupants are asleep at night and when they are out during the day. The strong association between heating operation and household routines leads to a morning peak in demand which, if it persists following electrification of heating, will require significant reinforcement of electricity supply networks. This paper examines factors that underlie current UK home heating practices. A unique dataset of heating controller settings from 337 UK homes with smart heating controllers allows investigation of how patterns of heating operation in individual homes contribute to daily patterns of space heating energy consumption at the group level. A mixed method approach is followed, combining quantitative analysis of data with interviews with householders, drawing on insights from social practice theory. The peak level of space heating demand is found to be higher in the morning than the evening. The concept of thermal routines is introduced, bringing a time dimension to the consideration of domestic thermal comfort and recognising that demand for space heating is linked to patterns of practices in the home, which are themselves linked to social routines, e.g. timing of work and school. The results from this study suggest that household thermal routines around 07:00 in the morning are a particularly important consideration for a transition to future energy systems with a high proportion of low carbon heat. Factors that currently limit flexibility of heating demand in the UK are identified and the implications for a transition to low carbon heating sources are discussed

How household thermal routines shape UK home heating demand patterns

In homes in the UK, it is very common to operate space heating intermittently; the heating is usually switched off when the occupants are asleep at night and when they are out during the day. The strong association between heating operation and household routines leads to a morning peak in demand which, if it persists following electrification of heating, will require significant reinforcement of electricity supply networks. This paper examines factors that underpin how heating is used in the UK. A unique dataset of heating controller settings from 337 UK allows investigation of how patterns of heating operation in individual homes contribute to daily patterns of space heating energy consumption at the group level. A mixed method approach is followed, combining quantitative analysis of data with interviews with householders. The concept of thermal routines is introduced, bringing a time dimension to the consideration of domestic thermal comfort and recognising that demand for space heating is linked to patterns of practices in the home, which are themselves linked to social routines, e.g. timing of work and school. The results from this study suggest that household thermal routines around 07:00 in the morning are a particularly important consideration for a transition to future energy systems with a high proportion of low carbon heat. Factors that currently limit flexibility of heating demand in the UK are identified, and the implications for a transition to low carbon heating sources are discussed

Using a runway paradigm to assess the relative strength of rats' motivations for enrichment objects

Laboratory animals should be provided with enrichment objects in their cages; however, it is first necessary to test whether the proposed enrichment objects provide benefits that increase the animals’ welfare. The two main paradigms currently used to assess proposed enrichment objects are the choice test, which is limited to determining relative frequency of choice, and consumer demand studies, which can indicate the strength of a preference but are complex to design. Here, we propose a third methodology: a runway paradigm, which can be used to assess the strength of an animal’s motivation for enrichment objects, is simpler to use than consumer demand studies, and is faster to complete than typical choice tests. Time spent with objects in a standard choice test was used to rank several enrichment objects in order to compare with the ranking found in our runway paradigm. The rats ran significantly more times, ran faster, and interacted longer with objects with which they had previously spent the most time. It was concluded that this simple methodology is suitable for measuring rats’ motivation to reach enrichment objects. This can be used to assess the preference for different types of enrichment objects or to measure reward system processes

Are we heading towards a replicability crisis in energy efficiency research? A toolkit for improving the quality, transparency and replicability of energy efficiency impact evaluations

Several high-profile replication failures have called into question the reproducibility of results in medicine, neuroscience, genetics, psychology and economics (Camerer et al. 2016). A paper published in Science found that just one third of psychology studies could be replicated when the study was run for a second time (OSC 2015). To our knowledge, there have been no attempted replications of energy efficiency studies; so can we be confident that the estimated energy savings from policy initiatives like the European roll out of smart meters will be realised? Or that electric vehicles will reduce carbon emissions by predicted levels? Or is energy heading towards its own reproducibility crisis? Researchers call for the increased use of randomised control trials (RCTs) to evaluate energy efficiency policy and the introduction of protocols or guidelines for conducting experiments (Vine et al. 2014; Frederiks et al. 2016). However, no guidelines for increasing reproducibility have been proposed. Moreover, RCTs are just one method for causal analysis and RCTs cannot answer all important causal questions. This paper will outline research methods for improved impact assessment of energy efficiency policy, including RCTs, but also quasi-experiments and systematic reviews that go beyond the conclusions of single experiments. It will then present tools for increasing replicability: pre-registration of trials; pre-analysis plans; reporting standards; synthesis tools and; publication of datasets with computer code in data repositories. Based on work by our research group at the UCL Energy Institute, we recognize that not all of these tools (mostly from medical trials) provide ‘off-the-shelf’ models for energy efficiency evaluations, and so consider adaptations for energy research. Our aim is to stimulate discussion and get feedback from the research community at ECEEE so the toolkit can be developed and potentially adopted more widely

Association Between Palliative Care and Patient and Caregiver Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The use of palliative care programs and the number of trials assessing their effectiveness have increased

Sexual harassment and abuse in sport: The research context

This special issue of the Journal of Sexual Aggression draws on the contributions to a Symposium on ‘Sexual Harassment in Sport – Challenges for Sport Psychology in the New Millennium’, held at the Xth Congress of the International Society for Sport Psychology, Skiathos, Greece from May 28th to June 2nd 2001. The symposium, which was organised by the authors of this editorial, was intended to move forward the international research agenda on sexual harassment and abuse in sport and to examine professional practice issues for sport psychologists. It was clear from the attendance of over 60 delegates at that symposium that international interest in this subject is growing. Further evidence of this came from the attendance of 26 members states – from Azerbaijan to Sweden - at a Council of Europe seminar on The Protection of Children, Young People and Women in Sport, held in Helsinki in September 2001

Feminist phenomenology and the woman in the running body

Modern phenomenology, with its roots in Husserlian philosophy, has been taken up and utilised in a myriad of ways within different disciplines, but until recently has remained relatively under-used within sports studies. A corpus of sociological-phenomenological work is now beginning to develop in this domain, alongside a longer standing literature in feminist phenomenology. These specific social-phenomenological forms explore the situatedness of lived-body experience within a particular social structure. After providing a brief overview of key strands of phenomenology, this article considers some of the ways in which sociological, and particularly feminist phenomenology, might be used to analyse female sporting embodiment. For illustrative purposes, data from an autophenomenographic project on female distance running are also included, in order briefly to demonstrate the application of phenomenology within sociology, as both theoretical framework and methodological approach

Gendered and Social Hierarchies in Problem Representation and Policy Processes: ‘Domestic Violence’ in Finland and Scotland

This article identifies and critiques presumptions about gender and violence that continue to frame and inform the processes of policy formation and implementation on domestic violence. It also deconstructs the agendered nature of policy as gendered, multilevel individual and collective action. Drawing on comparative illustrative material from Finland and Scotland, we discuss how national policies and discourses emphasize physical forms of violence, place the onus on the agency of women, and encourage a narrow conceptualization of violence in relationships. The two countries do this in somewhat comparable, though different ways operating within distinct national gender contexts.The complex interweaving of masculinities, violence, and cultures, although recognized in many debates, is seemingly marginalized from dominant discourses, policy, and legal processes. Despite growth in critical studies on men, there is little attempt made to problematize the gendered nature of violence. Rather, policy and service outcomes reflect processes through which individualized and masculine discourses frame ideas, discourses, and policy work. Women experiencing violence are constructed as victims and potential survivors of violence, although the social and gendered hierarchies evident in policies and services result in longer-term inequities and suffering for women and their dependents

Implementing Reliability: The Interaction of Requirements, Tactics and Architecture Patterns

An important way that the reliability of a software system is enhanced is through the implementation of specific run-time measures called runtime tactics. Because reliability is a system-wide property, tactic implementations affect the software structure and behavior at the system, or architectural level. For a given architecture, different tactics may be a better or worse fit for the architecture, depending on the requirements and how the architecture patterns used must change to accommodate the tactic: different tactics may be a better or worse fit for the architecture. We found three important factors that influence the implementation of reliability tactics. One is the nature of the tactic, which indicates whether the tactic influences all components of the architecture or just a subset of them. The second is the interaction between architecture patterns and tactics: specific tactics and patterns are inherently compatible or incompatible. The third is the reliability requirements which influence which tactics to use and where they should be implemented. Together, these factors affect how, where, and the difficulty of implementing reliability tactics. This information can be used by architects and developers to help make decisions about which patterns and tactics to use, and can also assist these users in learning what modifications and additions to the patterns are needed.</p