On-line energy services for smart homes

The EC funded 'Smart Homes' project commenced in 2001 as a 3 year programme. The primary objective is to establish Internet-based energy services and test these within field trials in Sweden, Greece, the Czech Republic and the UK. The tasks include the prototyping and testing of energy services for citizens and professionals, and the establishment of cable and wireless approaches to Internet connection. The implementations are based on residential gateway, or 'e-box', technology. Users, for example utilities, citizens, local authority energy managers and health care providers, can access the information through standard Web browsers and, depending on the particular energy service, may transmit information or control requests back to the originating homes. This paper sets out the overall structure of the SmartHomes system and reports on progress to date

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)

Energy and carbon performance of housing : upgrade analysis, energy labelling and national policy development

The area of policy formulation for the energy/carbon performance of housing is coming under increasing focus. A major challenge is to account for the large variation within national housing stocks relative to factors such as location, climate, age, construction, previous upgrades, appliance use and heating/cooling system types. Existing policy oriented tools rely on static calculation models that have limited ability to represent building behaviour and the impact of future changes in climate and technology. The switch to detailed simulation tools to address these limitations in the context of policy development has hitherto been focussed on the modelling of a small number of representative designs rather than dealing with the spread inherent in large housing stocks. To address these challenges, the ESRU Domestic Energy Model (EDEM) has been developed as a Web based tool built on detailed simulation models that have been aligned with the outcomes of national house condition surveys. On the basis of pragmatic inputs, EDEM is able to determine energy use and carbon emissions at any scale – from an individual dwelling to national housing stocks. The model was used at the behest of the Scottish Building Standards Agency and South Ayrshire Council to determine the impact of upgrades and the deployment of new and renewable energy systems. EDEM was also used to rate the energy/carbon performance of individual dwellings as required by the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EU, 2002). This paper describes the EDEM methodology and presents the findings from applications at different scales

The EDEM methodology for housing upgrade analysis, carbon and energy labelling and national policy development

The ESRU Domestic Energy Model (EDEM) has been developed in response to demand from policy makers for a tool to assist in analysis of options for improving carbon and energy performance of housing across a range of possible future technologies, behaviours and environmental factors. A major challenge is to comprehend the large variation in fabric, systems (heating, hot water, lighting and appliances) and behaviours across the housing stock as well as uncertainty over future trends. Existing static models have limited ability to represent dynamic behaviour while use of detailed simulation has been based on modelling only a small number of representative designs. To address these challenges, EDEM has been developed as an easy to use, Web based tool, built on detailed simulation models aligned with national house survey data. From pragmatic inputs, EDEM can determine energy use and carbon emissions at any scale, from individual dwelling to national housing stock. EDEM was used at the behest of the Scottish Building Standards Agency and South Ayrshire Council to quantify the impact of upgrades including new and renewable energy systems. EDEM was also used to rate energy/carbon performance of dwellings as required by the EU Directive (EU, 2002). This paper describes the evolving EDEM methodology, its structure and operation then presents findings from applications. While initial EDEM projects have been for the Scottish housing stock the methodology is structured to facilitate project development and application to other countries

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