Energy, carbon and cost performance of building stocks : upgrade analysis, energy labelling and national policy development

The area of policy formulation for the energy and carbon performance of buildings is coming under increasing focus. A major challenge is to account for the large variation within building stocks relative to factors such as location, climate, age, construction, previous upgrades, appliance usage, and type of heating/cooling/lighting system. Existing policy-related tools that rely on simple calculation methods have limited ability to represent the dynamic interconnectedness of technology options and the impact of possible future changes in climate and occupant behaviour. The use of detailed simulation tools to address these limitations in the context of policy development has hitherto been focussed on the modelling of a number of representative designs rather than dealing with the spread inherent in large building stocks. Further, these tools have been research-oriented and largely unsuitable for direct use by policy-makers, practitioners and, ultimately, building owners/occupiers. This paper summarises recent initiatives that have applied advanced modelling and simulation in the context of policy formulation for large building stocks. To exemplify the stages of the process, aspects of the ESRU Domestic Energy Model (EDEM) are described. EDEM is a policy support tool built on detailed simulation models aligned with the outcomes of national surveys and future projections for the housing stock. On the basis of pragmatic inputs, the tool is able to determine energy use, carbon emissions and upgrade/running cost for any national building stock or sub-set. The tool has been used at the behest of the Scottish Building Standards Agency and South Ayrshire Council to determine the impact of housing upgrades, including the deployment of new and renewable energy systems, and to rate the energy/carbon performance of individual dwellings as required by the European Commission's Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EC 2002)

Work and Timing of First Live Births in New Zealand

In this paper we have used data from a nationally representative sample survey of New Zealand women (N=2673) aged between 20 and 59 years. We employ life-table technique and proportional hazard modelling to assess the role of individual and group level variables in determining the timing of first live births. This study suggests that a woman's decision to work and to have children and when to have them are intimately linked. While the age at which women obtain their first job has not changed much over the generations the age of the mother when her first child was born has risen considerably over recent generations. The result has been a widening period of time between the first job and the first child (for both Maori and non-Maori). Our analysis suggests that the number of years a woman has worked is very closely associated with when she has her first child having worked increases the chances of having a child, but as the work experience lengthens so this chance declines

A multi-criteria performance study of an integrated demand/supply energy system for low and zero carbon technologies within domestic building design

When low carbon and renewable energy (RE) systems are adopted in a building, matching the outputs from RE systems (e.g. photovoltaic, solar collectors, small scale wind turbines and heat pumps) to demand has to be taken into account to fully realise the potential of the hybrid energy system. Considering the varying demand profiles due to different building design options (e.g. orientation, construction types etc), it is necessary to evaluate key technology elements in an integrated context and establish appropriate strategies for simultaneously meeting heating and electricity loads as well as matching demand and supply. This paper presents a new approach to evaluate the interactive effects of low carbon technologies and demand reduction measures in the early design stage of a new building. A case study of a sustainable domestic building project (PLUS 50), was implemented on the basis of the proposed design approach

Adoption of dynamic simulation for an energy performance rating tool for Korean residential buildings : EDEM-SAMSUNG

Currently, there is a high emphasis on reducing the energy consumption and carbon emissions of buildings worldwide. Korea is facing an emerging issue of energy savings in buildings in perspective of new green economic policy. In this context, various policy measures including the energy efficiency ratings for buildings are being implemented for domestic and non-domestic buildings. In practice, design teams tend to prefer easy to use assessment tools to optimise energy performance and carbon ratings while they are concerned about calculation accuracy and the accurate representation of the dynamics involved associated with the characteristics of Korean residential buildings. This paper presents an assessment tool, named ‘EDEM-Samsung’ that aims to address these challenges for Korean residential apartments, which often encounter complex design issues. EDEM-Samsung is a tool that enables users to make rapid decisions identifying the effect of design parameter changes on energy and carbon ratings with an effective user interface and without compromising accuracy. This paper describes the architecture and functionalities of the tool, and the advantages offered to Korean designers

Simulation support for internet-based energy services

The rapidly developing Internet broadband network offers new opportunities for deploying a range of energy, environment and health-related services for people in their homes and workplaces. Several of these services can be enabled or enhanced through the application of building simulation. This paper describes the infrastructure for e-services under test within a European research project and shows the potential for simulation support for these services

Indigenous fertility in the Northern Territory of Australia: stalled demographic transition

This research explores contemporary features of Indigenous fertility in the Northern Territory of Australia, the country's third largest state with the smallest total population, but with the largest proportion comprised of Indigenous peoples. The research exploits births data from a range of data sources to investigate whether Indigenous fertility trends in the Northern Territory over the past 20 years are a characteristic of stalled demographic transition. The research rests on three hypotheses: that Indigenous fertility trends in the Northern Territory were themselves an artefact of the data used to calculate the fertility rates; that there has been stalled demographic transition and the fertility declines documented for Northern Territory women during the 1960s and 1970s have not been maintained into the 21st century; and that contemporary Indigenous childbearing is characterised by universal, young mothering but not high parity. A conceptual framework was developed that captures the myriad factors that affect Indigenous fertility outcomes to provide a context within which the research results could be understood. A three-stage approach was then used to examine Indigenous fertility trends. Firstly, a detailed analysis of the collection processes for the quantitative data available for this research was undertaken, with a particular focus on the two main births data sets, vital registrations and perinatal data. Second, standard demographic techniques were used to identify fertility trends, exploiting the two births data sets, census data and survey data from the DRUID Study, a Darwin-based epidemiological study of Indigenous people. Third, a range of views and experiences of Indigenous individuals were sought through interviews and focus groups. The research showed that despite Indigenous population data in the Northern Territory being among Australia's most accurate, the use of these is constrained by issues of undercount and geographic coding of usual place of residence. Documentation of the investigation into data sources is an important contribution of this research. The stand out feature of contemporary fertility in the Northern Territory is the young age that Indigenous women have children. Teenage fertility rates are very high and peak childbearing is among women in their early 20s. There have been relatively stable total fertility rates (TFRs) among Indigenous women in the Northern Territory over a 20-year period, indicative of stalled demographic transition, but these belie complex geographic differences. There is evidence of fertility decline at the youngest ages in remote parts of the Northern Territory and indications of a slow move to delayed childbearing. The timing of this decline corresponds to the introduction of Implanon as a reliable form of contraception. Education among women was shown to be associated with slightly delayed entry to childbearing and lower parity, and although the associations were significant the impact they had was not dramatic. Into the future, we can expect to see birth cohorts of increasingly large size even with stable or declining TFRs, a continued young profile for childbearing and different fertility rates between urban and rural-remote communities, all of which have serious implications for the delivery of social services and social policy implementation

Work and Timing of First Live Births in New Zealand

In this paper we have used data from a nationally representative sample survey of New Zealand women (N=2673) aged between 20 and 59 years. We employ life-table technique and proportional hazard modelling to assess the role of individual and group level variables in determining the timing of first live births. This study suggests that a woman's decision to work and to have children and when to have them are intimately linked. While the age at which women obtain their first job has not changed much over the generations the age of the mother when her first child was born has risen considerably over recent generations. The result has been a widening period of time between the first job and the first child (for both Maori and non-Maori). Our analysis suggests that the number of years a woman has worked is very closely associated with when she has her first child having worked increases the chances of having a child, but as the work experience lengthens so this chance declines

Growth and characterization of SiC epitaxial layers on Si- and C-face 4H SiC substrates by chemical-vapor deposition

High-quality Schottky junctions have been fabricated on n-type 4H SiC epitaxial layers grown by chemical-vapor deposition on C- and Si-face substrates in order to understand the effect of growth direction on the growth mechanism and formation of defects. Atomic force microscopy analysis showed dramatic differences between the surfaces of SiC epilayers grown on C and Si faces. There was a significant step bunching in the SiC grown on Si-face substrates. Current-voltage, capacitance-voltage, and deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements were carried out on the Schottky junctions to analyze the junction characteristics. The Schottky junctions on C-face SiC showed larger barrier heights than those on Si-face SiC, showing that each face has a different surface energy. The barrier heights of Ni Schottky junctions were found to be 1.97 and 1.54 eV for C-face and Si-face materials, respectively. However, the deep-level spectra obtained by DLTS were similar, regardless of the increased surface roughness of the Si-face 4H SiC

Synthesis and characterization of iodovanadinite using PdI2, an iodine source for the immobilisation of radioiodine

The synthesis of a palladium-containing iodovanadinite derivative, hypothetically “PdPb9(VO4)6I2”, was attempted using PdI2 as a source of iodine in searching for a novel waste form for radioiodine. Stoichiometric amounts of Pb3(VO4)2 and PdI2 were batched and reacted at elevated temperatures in sealed vessels. Batched material was also subjected to high-energy ball-milling (HEBM) in order to reduce reaction time and the potential for iodine volatilization during subsequent reaction at 200–500 °C. The resulting products were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, IR spectroscopy, thermal analysis and Pd K XANES. Results showed that PdI2 can function as a sacrificial iodine source for the formation of iodovanadinite, prototypically Pb10(VO4)6I2, however, the incorporation of Pd into this phase was not definitively observed. The sacrificial reaction mechanism involved the decomposition of PdI2 to Pd metal and nascent I2, with the latter incorporated into the iodovanadinite Pb10(VO4)6I2 phase. In comparison to processing using standard solid state reaction techniques, the use of HEBM prior to high temperature reaction generates a more homogeneous end-product with better iodine retention for this system. Overall, the key novelty and importance of this work is in demonstrating a method for direct immobilisation of undissolved PdI2 from nuclear fuel reprocessing, in a composite wasteform in which I-129 is immobilised within a durable iodovandinite ceramic, encapsulating Pd metal