'Great British Refurb, The’: Housing for a Low Carbon Energy Future

Synopsis

Video recording of a lecture given by Tadj Oreszczyn, Professor of Energy and Environment at UCL, at the Royal Society on 9 June 2009 as part of the Story of London festival. Chaired by Professor Chris Rapley of the Science Museum. Almost half of the UK ‘s energy is used in buildings to provide a safe, healthy, comfortable, productive and fun environment. Most future low carbon scenarios assume significant reductions in carbon emissions associated with the built environment over the next thirty years.
Historically, however, theoretical carbon reductions have not materialized, for example, new buildings often use twice the energy that would be expected and major government insulation and heating system improvements can deliver minimal improvements in energy efficiency. This is because of the highly complex socio-economic and technical systems that make up the built environment. Major changes to research, development and deployment as well as government policy are required if major carbon reductions are to be delivered within the next thirty years.

The presentation covers questions such as:
How will our housing stock have to change in a low carbon future?
Why does energy use increase sometimes when we improve the energy efficiency of buildings?
Will future energy efficient buildings be healthy buildings?
Can we fix the problem with technology alone?

(68 minutes)

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2009

Year of production

2009

Subjects

Architecture; Environmental science

Keywords

buildings; energy efficiency; carbon emissions

Online availability

URI

http://royalsociety.tv/dpx_royalsociety/dpx.php?cmd=autoplay&type=solo&dpxuser=dpx_v12&pres=365

Price

free

Delivery

Streamed

Credits

Contributor

Tadj Oreszczyn

Distributor

Name

Royal Society: Royalsociety.tv

Email

http://royalsociety.org/contact-us/?from=header

Web

http://royalsociety.org/ External site opens in new window

Phone

020 7451 2500

Address

6-9 Carlton House Terrace
London
SW1Y 5AG

Notes

Royalsociety.tv offers live webcasts as well as podcasts and free, on-demand streaming of video and audio recordings of events held at the Royal Society. Lectures and discussions feature leading scientists and cover history of science as well as exploring cutting-edge science and culture.