A method for estimating scheduled and manual override heating behaviour and settings from measurements in low energy UK homes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for estimating scheduled and manual override heating events and heating settings from indoor air temperature and gas use measurements in UK homes.Design/methodology/approachLiving room air temperature and gas use data were measured in ten UK homes built to low energy standards. The temperature measurements are used to establish whether the central heating system is turned on or off and to estimate the heating setpoint used. The estimated heating periods are verified using the homes' average daily gas consumption profiles.FindingsUsing this method, the average number of heating periods per day was 2.2 (SD = 0.8) on weekdays and 2.7 (SD = 0.5) on weekends. The weekday mean heating duration was 8.8 h and for weekends, it was 9.8 h. Manual overrides of the settings occurred in all the dwellings and added an average of 2.4 h and 1.5 h to the heating duration on weekdays and weekends respectively. The mean estimated setpoint temperatures were 21.2 and 21.4°C on weekdays and weekends respectively.Research limitations/implicationsManual overrides of heating behaviours have only previously been assessed by questionnaire survey. This paper demonstrates an alternative method to identifying these manual override events and responds to a key gap in the current body of research that little is currently reported on the frequency and duration of manual heating overrides in UK homes.Practical implicationsThe results could be used to better inform the assumptions of space heating behaviour used in energy models in order to more accurately predict the space heating energy demands of dwellings.Originality/valueManual overrides of heating behaviours have only previously been assessed by questionnaire survey. This paper demonstrates an alternative method to identifying these manual override events and responds to a key gap in the current body of research that little is currently reported on the frequency and duration of manual heating overrides in UK homes.</jats:sec

Physical environmental and contextual drivers of occupants’ manual space heating override behaviour in UK residential buildings

This paper investigates the physical environmental (indoor and outdoor temperature and relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation and rainfall) and contextual drivers (time of day) affecting occupants’ manual space heating override behaviour during the heating season based on measurements collected in ten UK dwellings. Logistic regression modelling is used to understand the probability of occupants manually overriding their scheduled heating periods. To the authors’ knowledge, these are the first stochastic models of manual heating override behaviour developed for residential buildings. The work reported in this paper suggests that occupants’ manual overrides are influenced by indoor and outdoor temperature, indoor relative humidity, and solar radiation. In addition, the effects of the physical environmental variables varied in relation to the time of day. At night, none of the physical environmental variables influenced manual overrides. In the morning, afternoon and evening, manual overrides were governed by a mix of indoor air temperature, indoor relative humidity and solar radiation. The models presented can be used in building performance simulation applications to improve the inputs for space heating behaviour in residential buildings and thus the predictions of energy use and indoor environmental conditions

A comparison between thermostat and thermostatic radiator valve setpoint temperatures in UK social housing

In the UK, in centrally heated dwellings, space heating is commonly controlled by a whole house thermostat as well as thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) fitted on individual radiators. TRV settings define a setpoint temperature at which the radiator is switched off, in order to regulate zonal temperatures. This paper presents an analysis of the TRV setpoint temperatures which occupants’ select in living rooms and main bedrooms and provides a comparison between these and the whole house thermostat setting. The work capitalises on primary data from a socio-technical household survey undertaken in a sample of social housing in Plymouth, UK during 2015. The mean reported TRV setpoint temperature in the living rooms (n = 144) and bedrooms (n = 120) were 23.4°C and 22.1°C respectively. This result confirms that occupants prefer cooler conditions in their bedrooms and also suggests that occupants are actively using their TRVs to zonally control their heating at home to maintain comfortable thermal conditions and reduce their heating energy demand. The results also indicate that occupants’ thermostat and TRV setpoint temperatures vary according to their household and motivation, behaviour and perception characteristics. The mean reported thermostat setpoint temperature was 20.7°C for those who reported a living room TRV setting and 20.9°C for those who reported a bedroom TRV setting. This result suggests that there may be a misunderstanding of the purposes of the whole house thermostat and the individual TRVs within a central heating system. Variations in occupant heating control behaviour have an impact on occupant comfort and household energy use. The results of this study have significant implications for the planning and implementation of energy efficiency measures, behaviour change interventions as well as the design of heating controls

Central heating settings and heating energy demand in low energy social housing in the United Kingdom

This paper compares the central heating settings and the heating energy use performance of six flats and two houses built to low energy standards (Code for Sustainable Homes Levels 4 and 5) with a near identical flat and house built to minimum compliance only (2006 Building Regulations). As low energy houses are only recently emerging in the United Kingdom’s social housing stock, and even fewer are subject to Post Occupancy Evaluation, little is known about their performance in terms of heating behaviour and energy demand. The results show that in general, the mean weekday and weekend setpoint temperatures, heating durations and heating energy use are lower in the low energy dwellings compared to the building regulations dwellings

Motivating learners through information literacy

This paper is included in the Information Literacy: Key to an Inclusive Society, the proceedings of the European Conference on Information Literacy, 2016. The paper introduces a model for creating information literacy learning activities that motivate students. The model draws from informed learning, an approach to information literacy that emphasizes the role that information plays in fostering learning about a subject. Self-determination theory, a motivational theory that focuses on enabling self-determined learners, is applied within the informed learning framework. The results of the investigation outline characteristics of motivating learning activities that enable learning subject content through engagement with information. The model is intended to be used by librarians when working with classroom teachers to foster greater student learning gains through creative and reflective engagement with information

The role of thermostatic radiator valves for the control of space heating in UK social-rented households

This paper provides an analysis of the relationships between dwelling, household and motivation, behaviour and perception characteristics and thermostatic radiator valve (TRV) settings in living rooms (n=187) and bedrooms (n=159) in UK social housing. The work capitalises on primary data from a socio-technical household survey undertaken in Plymouth, UK during 2015, which was coupled with building audit data. The mean reported TRV setpoint temperatures in the living rooms and bedrooms were 23.4°C and 21.9°C, implying that occupants prefer cooler conditions in bedrooms. There were systematic variations according to dwelling, household, and motivation, behaviour and perception characteristics. In general, the setpoint temperatures in individual rooms were higher than the whole house thermostat setpoint temperature, implying that there may be a misunderstanding of the role of TRVs in the home heating system. The research could enable social housing providers, the government and commercial organisations to target energy efficiency measures (i.e. thermal upgrades) and social interventions (i.e. behaviour change) at those dwellings and households where their impact may be most beneficial. The results presented could also be used to improve the assumptions of zonal heating behaviour in energy models, which could result in more realistic predictions of the heating demands of social housing

A genome-wide study of Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium with next generation sequence data

Statistical tests for Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium have been an important tool for detecting genotyping errors in the past, and remain important in the quality control of next generation sequence data. In this paper, we analyze complete chromosomes of the 1000 genomes project by using exact test procedures for autosomal and X-chromosomal variants. We find that the rate of disequilibrium largely exceeds what might be expected by chance alone for all chromosomes. Observed disequilibrium is, in about 60% of the cases, due to heterozygote excess. We suggest that most excess disequilibrium can be explained by sequencing problems, and hypothesize mechanisms that can explain exceptional heterozygosities. We report higher rates of disequilibrium for the MHC region on chromosome 6, regions flanking centromeres and p-arms of acrocentric chromosomes. We also detected long-range haplotypes and areas with incidental high disequilibrium. We report disequilibrium to be related to read depth, with variants having extreme read depths being more likely to be out of equilibrium. Disequilibrium rates were found to be 11 times higher in segmental duplications and simple tandem repeat regions. The variants with significant disequilibrium are seen to be concentrated in these areas. For next generation sequence data, Hardy–Weinberg disequilibrium seems to be a major indicator for copy number variation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Kinship Index Variations among Populations and Thresholds for Familial Searching

Current familial searching strategies are developed primarily based on autosomal STR loci, since most of the offender profiles in the forensic DNA databases do not contain Y-STR or mitochondrial DNA data. There are generally two familial searching methods, Identity-by-State (IBS) based methods or kinship index (KI) based methods. The KI based method is an analytically superior method because the allele frequency information is considered as opposed to solely allele counting. However, multiple KIs should be calculated if the unknown forensic profile may be attributed to multiple possible relevant populations. An important practical issue is the KI threshold to select for limiting the list of candidates from a search. There are generally three strategies of setting the KI threshold for familial searching: (1) SWGDAM recommendation 6; (2) minimum KI≥KI threshold; and (3) maximum KI≥KI threshold. These strategies were evaluated and compared by using both simulation data and empirical data. The minimum KI will tend to be closer to the KI appropriate for the population of which the forensic profile belongs. The minimum KI≥KI threshold performs better than the maximum KI≥KI threshold. The SWGDAM strategy may be too stringent for familial searching with large databases (e.g., 1 million or more profiles), because its KI thresholds depend on the database size and the KI thresholds of large databases have a higher probability to exclude true relatives than smaller databases. Minimum KI≥KI threshold strategy is a better option, as it provides the flexibility to adjust the KI threshold according to a pre-determined number of candidates or false positive/negative rates. Joint use of both IBS and KI does not significantly reduce the chance of including true relatives in a candidate list, but does provide a higher efficiency of familial searching