I recently submitted a paper which said that an integrated model of domestic energy consumption is desperately needed. What’s more, I said that it didn’t look as though anyone else was really working on something like this. Turns out I was only partly right – people are working on integrated models, they’re just not integrating them with each other.
The idea of the paper was that if people could get behind one way of discussing domestic energy consumption, refering to its different constituent parts, and exploring the links between these parts, energy researchers would be better off. Research from one discipline could be used in another by using such a framework to put things in context. People would be speaking the same language and even if things weren’t perfect, it would be a big step forward.
These other projects that I’ve recently come across (CARB and Tyndall’s CIAM) seem to be going down the same path but in different directions. Both are trying to integrate the complexities of energy consumption (not just in the domestic sector) but they seem to be struggling to find this sort of common language. To be fair, both projects have slightly different aims and they have only begun recently and perhaps they’ve tried to find a common language and decided against it.
I realize that might come across wrong so let me clarify the two points I’m trying to make:
- It’s great that other people are trying to develop an integrated model of energy consumption. Funny that everyone seems to be getting the same idea all at once but the more the merrier I see and hopefully something will come of it.
- However given all the effort that has been and will be invested in these two projects, some effort should be made to reduce overlap and present them in a compatible way. I don’t think multiple “integrated” models are terribly useful by definition – there should at least be some degree of theoretical compatibility between integrated models.
This doesn’t mean that what I’m working on is an ideal third way. These other projects, like my work, is just starting and so I’m very keen to see how they progress. Given my flexibility as a doctoral student, I hope that I will be able to learn from these two projects, build a theoretical foundation and present a model which I feel is suitable for the integrated analysis of energy consumption.
