Can you lose weight just by turning down the thermostat?

It is that time of year when after weeks of over-indulgence thoughts turn inexorably to self-improvement and self-denial.  So I read with delight a suggestion in the New Scientist that turning down the thermostat might make you lose weight.  Surely that’s a three for one deal that can’t be missed?  Lose weight, save money and save the planet in one fell swoop!

The theory is that regular exposure to the cold means you lay down brown fat and that when the temperature drops below 18^oC, you burn it to warm yourself up.  A study of 1500 middle-aged adults in Turin found a correlation between higher internal home temperatures and obesity and that seems to be supported by laboratory studies which show increased energy expenditure as the temperature drops.

Sadly, further reading suggests that this might not be the quick fix that would make up for the 925 calories-a-slice salted caramel chocolate torte I am planning for our Hogmanay dinner.  There’s strong evidence that increased energy expenditure at lower temperatures is offset by greater food consumption.  And a much larger survey in the UK still found that higher internal temperatures were associated with lower BMI after controlling for demographic, health and environmental variables.

It is looking like I might need to dust off my running shoes after all…

Inauguaral post - Ed Davey lecture

Ed Davey’s speech for the UCL Energy Institute’s first annual  International Energy Lecture on Wednesday night seems a good place to start, for what is planned to be an occasional blog on energy demand issues.  I hope that this blog will eventually be a collection of thoughts and musings about issues relating to reducing energy demand and carbon emissions.

On the day that the Energy Act passed into law, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change was speaking to an audience composed mostly of researchers and professionals working in the energy sector.  You can see a video of the speech here.

Most of the speech was familiar territory but it was interesting that several times, Ed Davey characterised the UK as taking the lead in Europe, setting the pace of change and pushing for more ambitious targets.  He was speaking a day after news broke that two thirds of the UK’s land would be available for licensing for fracking, and the two points are clearly linked -  I wonder how this leadership position will be sustained in the longer term when we need to move beyond the “gas-bridge” to a decarbonized electricity supply?  The minister’s focus was on targets for 2030 but the real challenge will be achieving targets for 2050 which is when radical changes will be required.  There was no discussion about moving the agenda beyond 2030 even though the planning cycles are so long in this sector that such an omission is positively short-sighted.

The other clear theme from this speech was the focus on the market as the driver of change with the government’s role being to manage the market to enable technologies to progress to the point of being able compete on an open market (a position he noted that solar PV and on-shore wind were fast approaching.)

An interesting evening then, primarily because of the way it drew together the many strands of government energy policy and illuminating as much because of what was not mentioned as what was actually discussed.