Eliminating fuel poverty is a major issue for the National Home Improvement Council, consequently Dr Lubo Jankovic’s, Birmingham City University, research is highly welcomed.
His call for action coincides with the publication of his latest research in a book entitled: ‘Designing Zero Carbon Buildings Using Dynamic Simulation Methods’. It centres on the work done to evaluate the Birmingham Zero Carbon House, a ground-breaking carbon-neutral building based on 170-year-old redbrick Victorian house.
Dr Jankovic’s work has shown how best to convert existing buildings into zero carbon homes of the future – and how home-owners could potentially achieve a “lucrative” return on investment.
He says: “As we increasingly become aware of the causes and consequences of climate change, there is a sense that we are dealing with an almost impossible problem to solve, that our targets for zero carbon buildings are far in the future – and that our targets are hard to achieve!
“I believe that this book will help with culture change from the perception that the climate change arising from carbon emissions is almost an impossible problem to solve to the understanding that it is perfectly possible to design new or retrofit zero carbon buildings using existing technologies.”
He added: “Dynamic simulation – sophisticated computer modelling – is an essential ingredient of this method and a prerequisite for the level of analysis that is needed in order to achieve zero carbon design.
“The second essential ingredient is the economic analysis and the book demonstrates how zero carbon designs can be optimised to result in lucrative rates of return on investment.”
More information: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture/news/zero-carbon-buildings
A new report on fuel poverty for Ed Davey, Secretary of Sate for Energy & Climate Change, is very soon to be published by Professor John Hills, of the London School of Economics, in which he brings the whole fuel poverty issue up to date. Gareth Baynham-Hughes, a deputy director DECC has been very closely involved in this and will speak at a very special NHIC meeting on 27th March 2012. Further information from tanyacoutts@nhic.org.uk
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