Research and expertise
I am currently researching ways to improve thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and health in buildings.
Current research activity
- Reducing the Impact of Extreme Heat to Improve Wellbeing in Cities (REFIT), British Academy (2020-2022), Research Associate.
- Airborne Infection Reduction through Building Operation and Design for SARS-CoV-2 (AIRBODS), EPSRC (2021-2022), Research Associate.
- Improving the Predictions of Overheating (IMPROVE), Tyrens (2021-2023), Principal Investigator.
- Doctoral Prize Fellowship, EPSRC (2022-2024), Principal Investigator.
Recently completed research projects
- Technical Evaluation of SMETER Technologies (TEST), BEIS (2019-2022), Research Associate.
Recent publications
- Malki-Epshtein, L, Adzic, F, Roberts, BM, Hathway, EA, Iddon, C, Mustafa, M, Cook, M (in press) Measurement and rapid assessment of indoor air quality at mass gathering events to assess ventilation performance and reduce aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, ISSN: 0143-6244.
- Roberts, BM, Kasei, R, Codjoe, SNA, Amankwaa, EF, Gough, KV, Abdullah, K, Mensah, P, Lomas, K (2022) Comparing indoor air quality in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned hospitals in the tropics. In 42nd AIVC-10th TightVent & 8th Venticool Conference, 2022, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- Adzic, F, Roberts, BM, Hathway, EA, Matharu, RK, Ciric, L, Wild, O, Cook, M, Malki-Epshtein, L (2022) A post-occupancy study of ventilation effectiveness from high-resolution CO2 monitoring at live theatre events to mitigate airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, Building and Environment, 223(2022), 109392, ISSN: 0360-1323. DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109392.
- Roberts, BM, Abel, B, Allinson, D, Crowley, J, Rashid, T, Salehi, B, Lomas, K (2022) A dataset from synthetically occupied test houses for validating model predictions of overheating. In CIBSE Technical Symposium 2022, London, UK.
- Allinson, D, Roberts, B, Lomas, K, et al. (2022) Technical evaluation of SMETER technologies (TEST) project, pp.1-183, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. https://hdl.handle.net/2134/19169027.
- Roberts, BM, Allinson, D, Lomas, K (2021) Evaluating methods for estimating whole house air infiltration rates in summer: implications for overheating and indoor air quality, International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, ISSN: 2398-4708. DOI: 10.1108/IJBPA-06-2021-0085.
- Roberts, B.M., Allinson, D., Diamond, S., Abel, B., Das Bhaumik, C., Khatami, N., Lomas, K.J. (2019) Predictions of summertime overheating: comparison of dynamic thermal models and measurements in synthetically occupied test houses, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 40(4), ISSN: 0143-6244. DOI: 10.1177/0143624419847349.
Teaching
I was granted Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2018. I currently supervise two PhD students alongside undergraduate student dissertations and teach overheating, ventilation, and indoor air quality on the second year Building Science module.
Undergraduate
- Final year project supervisor (2020-present).
Postgraduate
- CVB117: Building Science.
Enterprise
Current projects
- Improving the Predictions of Overheating (IMPROVE), Tyrens (2021-2023), Principal Investigator.
Recently completed projects
- Technical Evaluation of SMETER Technologies (TEST), BEIS (2019-2022).
Profile
An MSc in Energy Policy at the University of Exeter first got me thinking seriously about energy use in buildings. My research into consumer acceptance of a short-lived retrofit policy, the Green Deal, helped me understand the human side of the problems we face in reducing energy use in homes.
A knowledge transfer partnership position followed at the Global Sustainability Institute (Anglia Ruskin University) where I evaluated effective marketing strategies for new Green Deal customers in a project funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (as it then was). The industry host for my KTP was an insulation and heating engineering company. I learned how businesses are run, how they are affected by government policy and the way they interact with academic research.
I then joined Loughborough University to pursue a PhD in the London-Loughborough Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand. I completed an MRes degree as a prerequisite to the PhD measuring the energy-saving potential of zonal heating controls.
Mitigation of summertime overheating in existing UK homes, without using air-conditioning, was my PhD research area. The intention of my PhD was to provide recommendations to occupants for maintaining safe, healthy, and comfortable environments in homes during heatwaves and to create a resource of data using CIBSE TM59 window opening schedules and gain profiles to validate models.
I am currently an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow and since 2019 have been a Research Associate working on a range of projects.
Professional Affiliations
- Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
Awards
- The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Carter Bronze Medal 2020 for the highest-rated paper related to research application
- ABCE 2019 Research Staff Excellence for Outstanding Research
- ABCE 2022 Research Staff Excellence for Outstanding Research
External Activities
- Reviewer - International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation (2020-present)
- Reviewer - Building Simulation and Optimisation Conference (2020-present)
- Reviewer - The Journal of Engineering Research (2021-present)
Key Collaborators
My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:
- University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
- University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana
- Hilson Moran Partnership Ltd., UK
- Inkling LLP, UK
- UCL, UK
- University of Nottingham
- University of Sheffield
- Halton Housing, UK
- Leeds Sustainability Institute, Leeds Beckett University, UK