Research Topic Title:
Low carbon residential retrofit: considering the resident as well as the carbon
My research has focussed on using interdisciplinary approaches and considering both people’s behaviours and values and technical issues to reduce carbon emissions from existing buildings. My multidisciplinary PhD at The Open University focussed on carbon reduction and heritage retention in residential heritage buildings. I explored residents’ heritage values, energy behaviours and comfort perceptions, examined how heritage building performance was portrayed in several building energy simulation tools and calculated the potential operational, embodied and lifecycle carbon performance of a wide range of retrofit measures. My PhD found that, with a holistic approach which focusses on the building and its residents as an interlinked system, realistic carbon savings are possible while retaining heritage values.
After completing my PhD, my research has focussed on carbon reduction from existing buildings more widely. I have undertaken postdoctoral research with homeowners, professionals and policy makers to inform the design of home retrofit services for local authorities, and on developing a systems approach to increase heat pump uptake in the UK. I have recently written a freely accessible online course aimed at increasing ‘retrofit literacy’ for homeowners due to be published in 2025. I am interested in all aspects of increasing sustainability in the built environment but particularly issues relating to heritage, embodied carbon, how people use buildings, energy modelling, and making retrofit information more accessible. During my fellowship I will be working on increasing the impact of my research, developing research publications and three additional pieces of research expanding my PhD findings.
Mentor/s:
Professor Alice Moncaster and Dr Laura De Vito
Publications:
Wise, F., Cooper, A.C.G. & Eckert, C. (in press) ‘A Transdisciplinary Engineering and Systems Approach for Decarbonizing UK Home Heating’. Transdisciplinary Engineering for Social Change: Proceedings of the 31st ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering, London, UK, 9-11 July 2024
Wise, F., Gillich, A. and Palmer, P. (under review) ‘Retrofit information challenges and potential solutions: perspectives of households, retrofit professionals and local policy makers in the southwest UK’, Energy Research & Social Science
Wise, F., Moncaster, A. and Jones, D. (2023) ‘Embodied carbon and building retrofit: a heritage example’, in A. Moncaster and R. Azhari (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment. Routledge. Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003277927-24/embodied-carbon-building-retrofit-freya-wise-alice-moncaster-derek-jones.
Wise, F., Moncaster, A. and Jones, D. (2022) ‘Residents’ comfort perceptions in domestic heritage buildings’, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1085(1), p. 012024. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1085/1/012024.
Wise, F., Moncaster, A. and Jones, D. (2022) ‘Is it all about the windows? Residents’ values in residential heritage buildings’, Acta Polytechnica CTU Proceedings, 38. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14311/APP.2022.38.0592.
Wise, F. et al. (2022) ‘Low carbon heritage: residents’ views from Cumbria and the English Lake District World Heritage Site’, in EEHB2022 proceedings. EEHB 2022, Benediktbeuern Monastery: Fraunhofer IRB, pp. 219–227. Available at: https://www.baufachinformation.de/eehb-2022-post-prints/bu/22109003312.
Wise, F. (2022) Reducing Carbon while Retaining Heritage: retrofitting approaches for vernacular buildings and their residents. PhD. The Open University. Available at: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0001515f
Wise, F., Moncaster, A. and Jones, D. (2021) ‘Rethinking retrofit of residential heritage buildings’, Buildings and Cities, 2(1), p. 495. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.94.
Wise, F., Jones, D. and Moncaster, A. (2021) ‘Reducing carbon from heritage buildings: the importance of residents’ views, values and behaviours’, Journal of Architectural Conservation, 27(1–2), pp. 117–146. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13556207.2021.1933342.
Wise, F. et al. (2019) ‘Considering embodied energy and carbon in heritage buildings – a review’, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 329(1), p. 012002. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/329/1/012002.
Contact Details:
E-mail: Freya.wise@open.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freya-w-18586917b/
X (Twitter): N/A
Website / Blog: https://www.open.ac.uk/people/fw2779
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9532-3862