The Centre is currently engaged in a European funded research project (acronym: SUSREF) looking at how to improve the energy and environmental performance of existing external walls, mainly on older properties. For the past two days I have been visiting houses in North Wales with solid stone external walls to assess their suitability for monitoring [...]

Popularity: 70% [?]

I’ve written here before about the need to understand how people interact with low energy buildings, and not just the heating system controls. Some of my current thinking is documented in this short paper I wrote for the in-house journal, MADE, published by the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University.
Click here to access the [...]

Popularity: 90% [?]

Mark Brinkley has published a useful graph on his blog summarising the output from different types of lighting compared to the power consumption. The graph clearly shows the advances that have been made in developing more efficient forms of lighting than the incandescent bulb. What’s missing of course is any indication of the quality of [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]

My current preoccupation with the role of emotions in shaping people’s interactions with technology is in part driven by John McCarthy’s and Peter Wright’s book, Technology As Experience, which draws on John Dewey’s pragmatism and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories on aesthetics to highlight the role of emotion in everyday experience. McCarthy’s and Wright’s interests lie mainly [...]

Popularity: 23% [?]

It’s a rare event, but every once in a while a book comes along that is so good, so comprehensive that it becomes ‘the bible’ for a discipline and a standard reference. I predict David MacKay’s book, Sustainable Energy — without the hot air, will be one of those. The book surveys the entire range [...]

Popularity: 47% [?]



No sentimentality intended, but this is what sustainability is about: those who can do something trying very hard (and changing behaviour) to ensure these (and all other) young people can enjoy the same quality of life we have experienced—chances are if you’re reading this blog you are old enough to have enjoyed some of the [...]

Popularity: 16% [?]

The EPSRC has published a call for participation in a workshop in the area of Energy and Communities. The workshop will consider the potential for a call for proposals in this area. The closing date for Expressions of Interest is 9 February 2009. Details are available via the link above.
Popularity: 20% [?]

Popularity: 20% [?]