Consumer perspectives in low energy/ low carbon housing: a video and interactive website

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources
Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Psychology)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Technology acceptance)
Other (Energy technology information dissemination)

Professor B Goodchild
Faculty of Development and Society
Sheffield Hallam University

Standard

ESRC

12 March 2012

11 March 2013

12 months

£47,880

East Midlands

KT

Professor B Goodchild, Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University

Ms A Ambrose, Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr F O'Flaherty, Faculty of Arts Computing Eng and Sci, Sheffield Hallam University

Project Contact, Building and Social Housing Foundation

The starting point is a concern that the debate about innovative low carbon/ low energy housing has been over-dominated by technologists, architects and various national pressure groups. Whilst we recognise the decisive influence of technology, we want to give tenants and other occupants a voice and we wish in addition to find ways of avoiding the technical jargon and specialised language of innovative housing design. We want to translate the issues into everyday language as far as possible. We also wish to disseminate some of the more technical research findings to a wider audience, one more concerned with policy and practice.In this context we intend to go beyond conventional forms of research and dissemination based on what is said or written. We intend to use two particular means to communicate our results and to stimulate professional awareness of the main issues.First, we propose to hire a community arts or film company to make a short video about how the occupants use the heating and other features of low carbon/ low energy housing and how in general they see this type of home and estate. We want to include a variety of schemes, one relying on renewable house-based energy such as photovoltaic cells; another using more modest technology to achieve high insulation and air proofing and a third involving district heating and biomass fuel. We also want to talk to local housing and related area managers about their experience, for example in dealing with technical failures, with metering and billing.Secondly and this is the most innovative aspect of the research in the context of a university, we wish to create an interactive forum where interested parties can see the videos, deposit and look at other sources of information and also communicate amongst themselves as to the future of low energy housing, including rehabilitation and retrofitting. The proposal mirrors a shift in the use of the web from a one-way means of disseminating information to a two way means of promoting a conversation. The proposal adopts and applies exactly the same shift to research into innovatory housing and domestic technologies.

22/01/15