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Midlands people can help design future of our home heating & hot water systems

Researchers at the University of Warwick’s School of Engineering and Warwick Business School are part of a new project that will draw on the opinions of Midlands people to help design future home heating and hot water systems.

i-STUTE, an interdisciplinary centre for Storage, Transformation and Upgrading of Thermal Energy is funded by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and it brings together technologists and researchers from the University of Warwick’s School of Engineering and Warwick Business School along with colleagues from London South Bank University, the University of Ulster and Loughborough University.

The engineers and designers want to develop future heating and hot water systems and are beginning by analysing UK consumers’ choices, habits and expectations. They are therefore encouraging people to fill in this online questionnaire to find out people’s preferences when it comes to drying clothes, doing the washing up, showering, and bathing for example. The research will help determine whether current heating systems, ranging from radiators and boilers to solar panels and heat pumps, meet consumer needs and what requirements will be desirable and/or necessary in the future.

Professor David Elmes of Warwick Business School said:

“The i-STUTE research project aims to understand how we can reduce energy consumption. A third of energy we use is in buildings, such as the homes we live in. Making the way we heat and cool our homes more effective saves money. This is why we have launched a questionnaire to see how well people’s needs and requirements are met today.”

The researchers want to get 500 responses to the questionnaire. The data collected will be treated in the strictest confidence and will only be used in research that explores how to improve the energy efficiency of our homes.

i-STUTE has received funding of £5.2 million from RCUK and will work with the five other centres to conduct research to help better understand the UK’s future energy needs.

If you want to take part in the anonymous questionnaire visit the link - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YourHeatingQuestionnaire

 

For further information please contact:

Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Policy
University of Warwick
Tel UK 024 76523708 office
07767 655860 mobile
Email p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR120 21st May 2015