...I will finish this PhD!
I do apologise for the lack of posting. If you've ever done/are doing/have met someone doing a PhD, you will know that the writing up last push is manic, sleepless and all consuming.
Two or three years ago you wrote a literature review. It was huge, the biggest piece of writing you'd done, and you were so proud. Now, after many journal publications and conference proceedings, you read it back to check it over, and you're horrified, possibly disgusted, with the quality of your writing! I'm beginning to understand why people who have done a PhD say they've never gone back and read their thesis.
What this has meant, along with doing my actual day job, applying for jobs and trying to enjoy at least some of the Edinburgh Fringe festival, is that I have had very little time to spend on things I enjoy and would like to spend more time on, like this website. It seems every other day an interesting story comes out in the press with respect to buildings or energy, and finally I've been pushed into action. There's just too much out there. I propose a pecha kucha blog post, so bear with me, hold on tight, as I take you quick-fire around my opinions on the news of late.
£20m to help 'street by street' Green Deal transformations
The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) have provided a pot of £20m for English local authorities to drive 'street by street' refurbishment under the Green Deal. This is fabulous, fantastic, finally putting money into large-scale refurbishments. But they're using the Green Deal to do it. My research (soon to be published, you'll see it here as soon as it's up on the host website) has shown that the Green Deal isn't really all that applicable for a large number of dwellings. The worse off the starting situation, the more likely you are to get green ticks on your assessment. My other research (soon to be submitted in PhD thesis format - très exciting!) has provided further evidence that dwelling type is more important with respect to energy assessment than construction materials. Therefore, if you're approaching a Victorian terrace for refurbishment, the end of terrace houses are more likely to get a green tick than the mid terrace houses. This isn't going to bring about the savings the Government wants, and £20m isn't enough. But enough about the Green Deal (for a more in-depth critique of the Green Deal, I suggest you look at/follow @HWUrbanEnergy on twitter), time for subject no.2.
Allowable Solutions
This is the consultation in which DECC are proposing to allow offsite energy generation from renewables, because it can be too costly to reach zero carbon homes using just onsite measures. I agree. But please, please, please can they make sure that this doesn't become a get-out clause from making homes leaner, greener and cleaner? We mustn't let it get to the stage where developers aren't pushing themselves for low carbon homes, because they can connect up a windfarm in the next valley.
No more CfSH?
On a similar note, a few things have hit the press this week with respect to reducing red tape in planning. The Coalition would love to do away with the Planning & Energy Act of 2008. Both the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) and myself have concern at this. I understand all too well the need to streamline planning, make it a simpler, less bureaucratic system. The plan to scrap the P&E Act would see the end of the Merton Rule, the rule introduced by Merton Borough Council in London and quickly taken up by other councils across the country, that new housing should reduce it's energy demand by 10% (over a regulation compliant version of the same house). They are also proposing ditching the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH), as the Building Regulations should take care of the targets in the Code already. This does happen with respect to energy and carbon. But what about waste, pollution, site management, ecology and health? The Code has some bizarre requests in it, but it makes sense for a more sustainable lifestyle: getting points for home-working, natural daylight, bike storage, indoor drying space, access to public transport etc. Will the Department of Communities and Local Government GUARANTEE that all aspects of the Code will make it into Regulations? I don't think they will.
And finally...
Thesis, thesis, thesis
I will write on here once I'm done with the PhD about what I got from it, how it challenged me, and what I'd do differently if I could do it again. But here I will just say:
"I'm so close!"
I'm in the 'tweaking' stage: ensuring words I wrote last year that should be past tense aren't still future tense, ensuring the spaces between figures and captions is correct (I'm pedantic like that), ensuring the references are in, checking the section numbers all match between the titles and the text...it's so time consuming, and all due by September 13th. So with that in mind, here endeth my blog for today. There's been a few little snippets that I haven't been able to fully share with you, but if you hadn't seen them before and now you have, then I've done my job.
Have wonderful weekends, my dear readers, and hopefully you have less rain, and more shine.
I do apologise for the lack of posting. If you've ever done/are doing/have met someone doing a PhD, you will know that the writing up last push is manic, sleepless and all consuming.
Two or three years ago you wrote a literature review. It was huge, the biggest piece of writing you'd done, and you were so proud. Now, after many journal publications and conference proceedings, you read it back to check it over, and you're horrified, possibly disgusted, with the quality of your writing! I'm beginning to understand why people who have done a PhD say they've never gone back and read their thesis.
What this has meant, along with doing my actual day job, applying for jobs and trying to enjoy at least some of the Edinburgh Fringe festival, is that I have had very little time to spend on things I enjoy and would like to spend more time on, like this website. It seems every other day an interesting story comes out in the press with respect to buildings or energy, and finally I've been pushed into action. There's just too much out there. I propose a pecha kucha blog post, so bear with me, hold on tight, as I take you quick-fire around my opinions on the news of late.
£20m to help 'street by street' Green Deal transformations
The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) have provided a pot of £20m for English local authorities to drive 'street by street' refurbishment under the Green Deal. This is fabulous, fantastic, finally putting money into large-scale refurbishments. But they're using the Green Deal to do it. My research (soon to be published, you'll see it here as soon as it's up on the host website) has shown that the Green Deal isn't really all that applicable for a large number of dwellings. The worse off the starting situation, the more likely you are to get green ticks on your assessment. My other research (soon to be submitted in PhD thesis format - très exciting!) has provided further evidence that dwelling type is more important with respect to energy assessment than construction materials. Therefore, if you're approaching a Victorian terrace for refurbishment, the end of terrace houses are more likely to get a green tick than the mid terrace houses. This isn't going to bring about the savings the Government wants, and £20m isn't enough. But enough about the Green Deal (for a more in-depth critique of the Green Deal, I suggest you look at/follow @HWUrbanEnergy on twitter), time for subject no.2.
Allowable Solutions
This is the consultation in which DECC are proposing to allow offsite energy generation from renewables, because it can be too costly to reach zero carbon homes using just onsite measures. I agree. But please, please, please can they make sure that this doesn't become a get-out clause from making homes leaner, greener and cleaner? We mustn't let it get to the stage where developers aren't pushing themselves for low carbon homes, because they can connect up a windfarm in the next valley.
No more CfSH?
On a similar note, a few things have hit the press this week with respect to reducing red tape in planning. The Coalition would love to do away with the Planning & Energy Act of 2008. Both the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) and myself have concern at this. I understand all too well the need to streamline planning, make it a simpler, less bureaucratic system. The plan to scrap the P&E Act would see the end of the Merton Rule, the rule introduced by Merton Borough Council in London and quickly taken up by other councils across the country, that new housing should reduce it's energy demand by 10% (over a regulation compliant version of the same house). They are also proposing ditching the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH), as the Building Regulations should take care of the targets in the Code already. This does happen with respect to energy and carbon. But what about waste, pollution, site management, ecology and health? The Code has some bizarre requests in it, but it makes sense for a more sustainable lifestyle: getting points for home-working, natural daylight, bike storage, indoor drying space, access to public transport etc. Will the Department of Communities and Local Government GUARANTEE that all aspects of the Code will make it into Regulations? I don't think they will.
And finally...
Thesis, thesis, thesis
I will write on here once I'm done with the PhD about what I got from it, how it challenged me, and what I'd do differently if I could do it again. But here I will just say:
"I'm so close!"
I'm in the 'tweaking' stage: ensuring words I wrote last year that should be past tense aren't still future tense, ensuring the spaces between figures and captions is correct (I'm pedantic like that), ensuring the references are in, checking the section numbers all match between the titles and the text...it's so time consuming, and all due by September 13th. So with that in mind, here endeth my blog for today. There's been a few little snippets that I haven't been able to fully share with you, but if you hadn't seen them before and now you have, then I've done my job.
Have wonderful weekends, my dear readers, and hopefully you have less rain, and more shine.