Lecturer in Building Performance Modelling
| Phone: | +44 (0)1509 228546 |
| Fax: | +44 (0)1509 223981 |
| Email: | S.K.Firth@lboro.ac.uk |
| Publications: | View – and visit the CBE Repository page |
My core areas of expertise includes end-use energy demand in domestic buildings, large-scale home energy surveys, detailed energy monitoring studies and national stock energy modelling. My research focuses on the synergies and gaps at the interfaces with other disciplines, working alongside colleagues in social science, psychology, ICT, non-domestic buildings and transport systems.
Download brief CV - www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~cvskf/Steven_Firth_CV.pdf
I am currently an investigator on the following funded research projects:
REFIT: Personalised Retrofit Decision Support Tools for UK Homes using Smart Home Technology, Principal Investigator, £1.5m, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K002457/1)
Disaggregated Scenarios for Demand Studies (DS4DS), Principal Investigator, £120k, UK Energy Research Centre, www.ds4ds.org
SECURE: SElf Conserving URban Environments, Co-Investigator, £2.7m, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I002154/1), www.secure-project.org
REViSITE: Roadmap Enabling Vision and Strategy for ICT-enabled Energy Efficiency, Co-Investigator, £1.5m, European Commission FP7 (248705), www.revisite.eu
Measurement, Modelling, Mapping and Management (4M): An Evidence-Based Methodology for Understanding and Shrinking the Urban Carbon Footprint, Co-Investigator, £2.5m, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/F007604/2), www.4mfootprint.org
Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers
Journal Reviewer: Solar Energy; Energy; Building Services Engineering Research & Technology; International Journal of Sustainable Engineering; Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
Building Energy Research
Carbon Reduction in Buildings (CaRB): A socio-technical, longitudinal study of carbon use in buildings, EPSRC Carbon Vision Programme (GR/S94377/01) – a four year, five university project funded by EPSRC/Carbon Trust/ESRC to monitor and model carbon emissions from UK domestic and non-domestic buildings
Raising Efficiency in Photovoltaic Systems: High Resolution Monitoring and Performance Analysis, PhD thesis, De Montfort University – a monitoring study of over 100 solar photovoltaic systems installed on domestic buildings across the UK – www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~cvskf/Steven_Firth_PhD_Thesis.pdf
Relevant publications (and open access links)
Stock modelling:
Firth SK, Lomas KJ and Wright AJ. Targeting household energy-efficiency measures using sensitivity analysis, Building Research & Information, Volume 38, Issue 1 (2010) 25-41, http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6364
Firth SK and Lomas KJ, Investigating CO2 emission reductions in existing urban housing using a community domestic energy model, Proceedings of IBPSA, Building Simulation 2009, Glasgow, 30th July 2009, http://www.ibpsa.org/proceedings/BS2009/BS09_2098_2105.pdf
Internal temperatures and heating practices in homes:
Shipworth MD, Firth SK, Gentry MI, Wright AJ, Shipworth DT and Lomas KJ. Central heating thermostat settings and timing: building demographics, Building Research and Information, Volume 38, Issue 1 (2010) 50-69
Kane T, Firth SK, Allinson D, Irvine K and Lomas KJ. (2010) Does the age of the residents influence occupant heating practice in UK domestic buildings?, East Midlands Universities Association 2010 Conference - Perspectives in Society: Health, Culture, and the Environment, Nottingham, 14th September 2010, www.emua.org.uk/docs/domesticp-1299501691.doc
Firth SK and Wright AJ, Investigating the Thermal Characteristics of English Dwellings: Summer Temperatures, Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings, Proceedings of Windsor 2008 conference: Air Conditioning and the Low Carbon Cooling Challenge, Windsor, UK, 27-29 July 2008, http://nceub.commoncense.info/uploads//W2008_12Firth.pdf
Domestic energy monitoring:
Coleman MJ, Wright AJ, Brown N and Firth SK, Domestic consumer electronics appliance monitoring: A practical perspective and implications for inter-disciplinary research, Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting, Berlin, 2009
Firth SK, Lomas KJ, Wright A and Wall R, Identifying trends in the use of domestic appliances from household electricity consumption measurements, Energy and Buildings 40, 2008, 926-936, http://hdl.handle.net/2134/5286
Wright AJ and Firth SK, The nature of domestic electricity loads and effects of time averaging on statistics and on-site generation calculations, Applied Energy 84, 2007, 389-403. http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6607
Renewable energy:
Firth SK, Lomas KJ and Rees SJ. A simple model of PV system performance and its use in fault detection, Solar Energy, Volume 84 (2010) 624 – 635, http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6153
Firth SK, Buswell RA and Lomas KJ, A simple model of domestic PV systems and their integration with building loads, Proceedings of IBPSA, Building Simulation 2009, Glasgow, 30th July 2009, http://www.ibpsa.org/proceedings/BS2009/BS09_0789_796.pdf
Simons A and Firth SK. 100% solar fraction thermal supply to a European apartment building using water-based sensible heat storage; a comparative LCA. Energy and Buildings, 43 (2011) 1231-1240, http://hdl.handle.net/2134/8294
Steijger LA, Buswell R, Smedley V, Firth SK and Rowley P. An air source heat pump model for operation in cold humid environments. 8th International Conference on System Simulation in Buildings, Liege, Belgium, December 2010.
ICT for Energy Efficiency:
Ye J, Hassan T, Firth SK and Farid F. ICT for energy efficiency: towards smart buildings, manufacturing, lighting and grids. cib-w78-2010, Cairo, Egypt, November 2010
Urban energy systems:
Lomas KJ, Bell MC, Firth SK, Gaston KJ, Goodman P, Leake JR, Namdeo A, Rylatt M, Allinson D, Davies ZG, Edmondson JL, Galatioto F, Brake JA, Guo L, Fill G, Irvine KN, Taylor SC, Tiwary A, The carbon footprint of UK Cities: 4M: measurement, modelling, mapping and measurement, ISOCARP Review 06, Int. Soc. of City and Regional Planners, p168 – 191, (2010) ISBN 978-0-415-61715-4
Low carbon building design:
Firth SK and Cook MJ, Natural ventilation in UK schools: design options for passive cooling, Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings, Proceedings of Windsor 2010 conference: Adapting to Change: New Thinking on Comfort Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, UK, 9-11 April 2010, http://nceub.commoncense.info/uploads//55-01-14-Firth.pdf
For general enquiries to the School, email: Civ.Eng.enq@lboro.ac.uk
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