Ha! Gotcha! However since you’re here here’s an update on what the STEEV project’s been up to. On Tuesday 26 April Fiona and I held a Skype telecon with Simon at Cardiff University. Simon demonstrated the background to the energy efficiency model and explained the construction of the building clusters which assigns each building (houses) into a particular cluster or category according to a number of criteria including building dimensions, fabric performance, appliances, solar gain, space heating etc.

As a result of our discussion the Cardiff team are revisiting issues relating to the raw building data and the subsequent clusters with a view to developing a simpler modelling technique which would allow different fuel scenarios to be modelled more quickly. As part of this exercise we have established that a functional specification is required pertaining to the visualisation tool detailing purpose, scope, objectives, database structure, GUI, internal and external interfaces etc.  The formalisation of this aspect will offer clarity on both utility and content delivery.

As an aside there’s an interesting and interactive web tool hosted by Department of Energy and Climate Change, Sciencewise-ERC and Delib. Basically it’s a modelling tool for the general public to play around with to try and get carbon emissions below 20% of 1990 levels by 2050…

2050 Web tool – http://my2050.decc.gov.uk/