This overlooked area of study is ripe for some detailed research. Our own research at SuDoBE suggests this should go beyond the obvious targeting of heating controls and include the general operation of low energy buildings. What are the best ways to operate these buildings?

cityofsound: Essay: On the smart city; Or, a manifesto for smart citizens instead.

Queuing for the food in the USSR. © 2005-2010 Douglas Smith

Queuing for the iPad in Pittsburgh. Photo by beschizza on flickr.

It always seems to be theirs rather than ours, yours or mine.

A new blog, Building Energy Exposed (hat tip to Mel Starrs for tweeting the link), reminds us how difficult that can be, documenting the problems a building services engineer can face in trying to advance the low energy/carbon agenda. These horror stories shouldn’t deflect us from pursuing realistic goals for reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Instead they are pointers to the issues we need to consider in developing strategies.

In Purity and Danger, the anthropologist, Mary Douglas, wrote about the phenomenon of ‘dirt’ which she defined as “matter out of place.” I recently examined a PhD thesis which applied the concept of dirt to the operations of the construction industry, even for the simplest jobs, such as a loft conversion. I am grateful to the student for showing me the potential of this idea in everyday, mundane building practices. I hope he develops this idea further, because it is important for us to acknowledge there is dirt in every system and how we deal with it often decides the success of our projects. If anyone tries to tell you they have eradicated dirt from their product, system, or technology, they are either trying to fool you or themselves.

There is a conversation to be had about exactly what kinds of skills we need and the role of the professions in moving to a sustainable future. If we didn’t already have the professions that exist now would we create them as the best response? If you ask an architect to solve a problem, is the answer always a building? If you ask a services engineer, will the answer always be a new piece of kit?

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Many discussions about renewable energy sources seek to demonstrate they are capable of replacing existing fossil fuel energy sources because they yield the same amount of energy over similar periods of time. In the extreme case it is argued that the amount of solar energy falling on the earth is numerically much greater than we currently need. This may well be so, but the crucial point is not the quantity of energy but the availability of that energy to “do work.” It is this variability in the quality of energy sources that undermines what is sometimes referred to as “the swap” in which current energy sources are simply replaced by renewables to support “business as usual.”

In the context of heated buildings, the ability of a source of energy to “do work” can be interpreted as delivering warmth to occupants. But as the post on exergy suggests, the concentration of heat is important and concentrated sources of warmth indoors are only available from fossil fuels. The erroneous assumption often made about warmth is that it doesn’t matter how it is delivered as long as it is capable of creating a comfortable environment. However, we know thermal comfort depends on the recent experience. If I return home on a cold day, what I want is not a uniform level of heating, which is increasingly the norm in new, highly insulated dwellings with small heating systems, but a high temperature heat source that will help me recover from the outside conditions quickly. There is an aesthetic pleasure to this which should not be underestimated.

My hunch is that if we examine thermally related behaviour in buildings we will find much of it is driven by the pursuit of thermal experience that often lies outside the conventional understanding of thermal comfort. It is important to take this on board when we consider the delivery of heat and warmth in dwellings because if we don’t, it is highly likely that the occupants will take steps to restore enjoyable thermal experience, regardless of the consequences for energy consumption or carbon dioxide emissions.