Prof Jacopo Torriti will be presenting an online webinar ‘Saving energy in your home’ (Green Festival 21)

As part of the University of Reading Green Festival 21, Professor Jacopo Torriti will be one of the speakers presenting at an online webinar, ‘Saving energy in your home’.

This webinar will look at how to save energy in your home while possibly making financial saving and protecting the planet in the long term.

Date: Thursday 4th November

Time: 11:00 – 11:45.

Speakers:

Dr Emmanuel A Essah  – Associate Professor in Sustainable Technologies
Dr Mehdi Shahrestani – Director of Architectural Engineering – TBC
Dr Maria Vahdati – Programme Director, MSc Renewable Energy: Technology & Sustainability 
Professor Jacopo Torriti – Co-Director, Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS)
Luke Cantellow – Energy officer from the University of Reading

“Impact of Time-Use Behaviour on Residential Energy Consumption in the United Kingdom” paper published by Mate Janos Lorincz, Jose Luis Ramirez-Mendiola and Jacopo Torriti

REDPeAk Paper

Abstract: Despite its inherent importance in the timing and scheduling of activities, the effect of working time (and working patterns) on time-use patterns and associated energy consumption has received little attention.  In this study, we conducted a systematic time-use analysis of the relationship between working time, scheduling of energy-relevant activities and the likely implications for energy consumption among the working population in the United Kingdom. We present a systematic time-use-based approach for estimating residential energy consumption with regards to activity timing, activity location, activity coordination, and appliance type. We use this strategy to discover patterns in residential activities and energy consumption, as well as the causal relationship between residential energy consumption and work patterns. Using time-diary data on six energy-relevant activities, we employed an econometric approach to investigate how time is allocated among people with varied work statuses. We then estimated likely total energy use at home after work by linking activities to appliance ownership and usage data. Using this information, we were able to calculate the correlation between work hours and energy use. In this study, we saw heterogeneity in the work-energy relationship, particularly when comparing full-time and part-time workers. In the case of regular work patterns full-time employees reduced their energy consumption more than part-time employees.  We also found a non-linear change in overall energy use for respondents with varying levels of work time. Energy consumption reductions were greatest during the initial hours of work but levelled off over time. More research is needed to understand the differences in employment groups. This could help bridge the gap between micro- and macro-estimates of the work–time–energy relationship explored in previous studies. As a result, policymakers must pay close attention to time-use behaviours of different segments of the labour force. According to the findings of this study, taking time-use behaviours into consideration could aid in the creation of more focused, and hence more successful, climate mitigation measures. With this paper, we demonstrated to the research community that weekly work diaries are extremely useful when investigating work-hour arrangements. The combination of time-use diaries and weekly work diaries provides more information about the temporal organisation of paid work than aggregated working hour estimates,  from the Labour Force Survey, for example. As a result, we believe that in order to achieve more accurate results, national time-use surveys should include separate weekly work diaries, which provide less biased estimates of the time spent on diverse activities.

Citation: Lőrincz, M. J., Ramírez-Mendiola, J. L., & Torriti, J. (2021). Impact of Time-Use Behaviour on Residential Energy Consumption in the United Kingdom. Energies, 14(19), 6286.

Lorincz, M. J., Ramirez-Mendiola, J. L. and Torriti, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0569-039X (2021) Impact of time[1]use behaviour on residential energy consumption in the United Kingdom. Energies, 14 (19). 6286. ISSN 1996-1073 doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196286 Available at https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/100610/

Prof Torriti speaking at Scottish Ecological Design Association event – 11 October 2021

Prof Torriti will be speaking at Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) event on Monday 11th October 2021 from 5:30 pm  7:00 pm

This session will explore grid integration of solar and renewable energy from a broader view of grid flexibility and capacity, how different battery models could support the grid, what the energy market with its supply and demands, energy policies and financial models will hold for us in the future, and potential changes necessary moving forwards.

Three short presentations will be followed by Q&A and discussions.

1. Intelligent energy storage and controls for future smart grids by Dr. Brenda Park, Director and Chief Operating Officer at StorTera

2. Energy storage and demand side flexibility – business models and economics by Dr. Robin Adey-Johnson, Senior Analyst, Detla-EE

3. Smart solar at scale – challenges and solution to policy and regulatory barriers by Prof Jacopo Torriti, School of the Built Environment, University of Reading.

More information can be found here: Events — Scottish Ecological Design Association (seda.uk.net)

Eventbrite link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seda-solar-seminar-6-storage-part-ii-tickets-169157521701

INDOOR AIR 2022 – Call for Abstracts and Workshop proposals

INDOOR AIR 2022 (IA2022) is scheduled to place, in person, June 12-16, 2022, in Kuopio, Finland.  The theme for this conference is “Healthy people in healthy indoor environments”.  IA2022 themes will cover health outcomes, exposures, sources and dynamics of the exposing agents, new materials and development of analytical tools and sustainability of buildings. Take a moment to view the full list of IA2022 Themes.

IA2022 will continue the conference series with a multidisciplinary and holistic view on indoor air science.

Submit Individual Abstracts: The abstract should give readers concise information about the content of the article and indicate the problem, the method used, the main results obtained, and conclusions drawn. The abstract should be complete in itself; no tables, figures, references or displayed mathematical expressions should be included.

The Abstract title is limited to 12 words and abstract text should be a maximum of 250 words. Up to five keywords should be provided together with the abstract.  Please submit your abstract by Sunday, November 21, 2021.

To view a list of topics of interest and formatting guidelines, please go the call for abstracts webpage.

Workshop proposals: Workshops are interactive sessions that target specific audiences and promote knowledge transfer, skills development and collaborative learning among all participants and workshop facilitators. They are designed as opportunities for professional development. Workshops will be selected from proposals submitted by the deadline. Please submit your Workshop proposal by Sunday, November 21, 2021.

To view guidelines, please go to the call for workshop proposals webpage.

CREDS ‘Making mass retrofit a reality’ Workshop on 20th October at 14:00 (UK) time

Online workshop: Making mass retrofit a reality

20th October 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 (UK time)

The Centre for Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS) and Buildings and Cities are delighted to invite you to an online webinar exploring the delivery of domestic building retrofit at the speed and scale necessary for meeting climate targets. This session marks the launch of a recent Buildings & Cities Special Issue, co-guest edited by Dr Faye Wade (University of Edinburgh) & Prof Henk Visscher (TU Delft), with papers highlighting routes to rapid energy retrofit and is timed for the lead up to COP26.

Featuring experts from policy & academia, the webinar will explore:

  • How policy can support mass retrofit
  • How best to coordinate the relevant actors (such as central and local government, private sector companies and contractors, professional organisations)
  • What changes to business models and the construction supply chain are required, and how best to support these

We have an exciting range of confirmed speakers including: Joanne Wade, OBE (Chief Strategic Advisor for the Association for Decentralised Energy); Jan Webb MBE (Professor of Sociology of Organisations, University of Edinburgh); Petra Hofman (Researcher, Tilburg Centre for Regional Law and Governance); Kate Simpson (Research Associate, Imperial College London).

The session also features international experience: Veronika Schröpfer (Head of EU Research Projects at the Architects’ Council of Europe); Erwin Mlecnik (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft); Stefan Moser (European Commission’s Head of Buildings and Products) and; Lord Deben (Chair, UK Climate Change Committee).

Please visit Eventbrite for more information and to register.

Podcast from JRC – jointly with the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors and Science Advice for Policy by European Academies event on “Science advice for energy policy”

On 7 September 2021, the JRC – jointly with the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors and Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA) – organised a satellite event on “Science advice for energy policy: who’s afraid of epistemic diversity?” linked to the 4th International Conference on Science Advice to Government.

The session sought to address the question “What are the challenges in organising, generating and absorbing interdisciplinary science for policy?”, as experienced in the complex field of energy policy.

In the interactive format of a “fishbowl” panel, with a regularly changing panel composition, Jacopo Torriti and other academic experts from different disciplines engaged with policymakers and audience members to discuss lessons from their practice of advising policymakers.

The podcast of the event is available here.

European Commission website link is available here.

 

Researcher – Energy Demand and Racial Justice (CREDS)

Researcher – Energy Demand and Racial Justice (CREDS)

The post holder will locate and map relevant sources of data, review existing literature and engage stakeholders to scope a new research agenda for energy demand and racial justice across multiple intersections (race, gender, class, socio-economic status, etc.).

The post is fixed-term for 12 months.

For further information contact Professor Nick Eyre nick.eyre@ouce.ox.ac.uk.

Closing date: Midday, Monday 11th October.