Summary Annotation

Perez-Lombard, L., Ortiz, J., Pout, C. (2008). A review on buildings energy consumption information.

Energy and Buildings, 40, 394-398. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2007.03.007

This article focuses on energy consumption in buildings. It looks at the energy usage in the world and how it differs over the years in different regions. It attributes the rise in energy consumption to economic growth, expansion of building sector and variety of building services offered such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The authors mentioned that the rapid increase in energy consumption and CO2 emissions in buildings have led to energy efficiency and saving strategies being a primary target for energy policies in many countries. HVAC systems take up the largest proportion of energy usage in both residential and commercial buildings. Office buildings are the biggest energy consumers and CO2 emissions producers in the commercial sector. Energy consumption of buildings in developed countries can form up to 20% to 40% of the total energy use. However, the authors claimed that the lack of consistent data makes it tough to study the underlying changes that affect energy consumption in the building sector. More complete building energy information should be made available to allow better analysis on the energy consumption. The authors' main aim with this article seems to be encouraging private initiative collaborations with the government to promote energy efficiency, new technologies for energy production, limiting energy consumption and raising social awareness on the rational use of energy in order to make possible for a sustainable energy future.

Edited on 10/04/2019 11.00pm
Commented on Akram's, Baizurah's and Nurul's posts.

Summary_Reader Response Draft #3

In the article "Eight failures that left people of Grenfell Tower at mercy of the inferno", Knapton and Dixon (2017) claimed that a series of flaws in building regulations had made the occupants of Grenfell helpless during the massive fire. Firstly, the government did not have regular review on building regulations. The last revision was implemented in 1986 by the National Buildings Regulations. However, it did not specify if external building materials had to be non-combustible. At Grenfell, the cladding used was unsafe because it had contained combustible materials. Furthermore, Knapton and Dixon (2017) stated that spaces in between the cladding helped the fire to extend to the levels above. The fire was also able to spread to other areas as fire doors were not installed. Firebreaks were deemed ineffective in a fire like Grenfell. The absence of a central sprinkler system made the upper levels more vulnerable as the fire hoses were not long enough. Moreover, the only staircase in the building was obstructed and filled with smoke. The lack of clarity in the fire risk assessment regulations also played a part.

While the article explained the contributing factors to the disaster at Grenfell Tower, it failed to mention the London Fire Brigade response to the situation. The fire brigade was partly responsible for leaving the residents of Grenfell at the mercy of the massive fire.

Firstly, the fire brigade was slow in decision making. In the article "Grenfell Tower: What happened" (2018), it was reported that one of the fire experts from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry claimed that the ‘stay put’ policy had significantly failed at 1.26am which was about half an hour after the arrival of the first firefighters. This meant that the initial plan for fire containment within the apartment had failed and the fire had spread to other parts of the building. However, the fire brigade took more than an hour to abandon the ‘stay put’ fire policy and start evacuating residents. The decision time was crucial for the residents in escaping. As time passed, smoke started infiltrating the stairway making it harder for an escape to happen. If the fire brigade had been able to come out with the decision quicker, the residents would not be left helpless in their apartments.

The fire brigade was also disorganized in responding to the situation. One of the survivors claimed to have witnessed bigger fire engines with high ladder being unable to go nearer to the building as the road were blocked by smaller fire engines that had arrived earlier (Mendick, 2018). It was surprising to know that bigger fire engines with high ladder were not immediately activated to fire situations at high rise buildings like Grenfell. The general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union mentioned the importance of an aerial appliance arriving first at the scene due to the strong supply of water it could provide (Sawer, 2017). This meant that there could have been a possibility of the fire being controlled from spreading to the entire building if the aerial appliance had responded to the fire earlier which may help to avoid the apartment fire from turning into a disaster.

The preparedness of the fire brigade was also in question. Booth (2018) stated that none of the firemen were taught on how to deal with cladding fires even when the issue had been surfaced within the organization. This meant that the firemen were fighting a fire they knew little about and may endanger themselves as well as the lives of the residents if they did not manage the cladding fires properly. If the firemen had been equipped with knowledge and skills in fighting cladding fires, more lives could have been rescued from the incident.

The flaws in building regulations may have left the residents of Grenfell helpless in the massive fire. We cannot exclude the role that the London Fire Brigade had played in the incident which was equally as important. If the fire brigade had better protocols for managing building fires, the fire at Grenfell Tower would have a less severe outcome.

References

Booth, R. (2018). Grenfell Tower inquiry: what we've learned so far. The Guardian. Retrieved, December 13, 2018 from
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/13/grenfell-tower-inquiry-what-weve-learned-so-far

Grenfell Tower: What happened (2018). BBC. Retrieved, June 18, 2018 from 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40301289

Mendick, R. (2018). The Grenfell Tower survivors: Lucky to escape, but living with the horror of what they saw. The Telegraph. Retrieved, May 24, 2018 from 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/24/grenfell-tower-survivors-lucky-escape-living-horror-saw/

Sawer, P. (2017). Grenfell Tower firefighters 'hampered' by equipment faults and delays. The Telegraph. Retrieved, July 8, 2017 from
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/08/grenfell-tower-firefighters-hampered-equipment-faults-delays/

Edited on 10/04/2019 10.55pm

Reported Speech: Xavi likes to bite his nails

Xavi claimed that he has a bad habit of biting his nails since young. His parents commented that the action of his is very unhygienic and suggested him to cut his nails using a nail cutter instead. However, Xavi rejected the idea of cutting his nails with a nail cutter as he was afraid of hurting himself. His parents then suggested to help him cut his fingernails to prevent him from biting his nails. He mentioned that as he grew up, he learned to cut his own nails and have managed to get rid of his bad habit.

Descriptive Reflection: Strengths and Challenges in Communicating

Dear Professor Blackstone,

My name is Lu Sheng and I am writing to formally introduce myself. I studied marketing in Temasek Polytechnic before making a switch to pursue civil engineering in university. After graduating from polytechnic, I was uncertain if marketing was the right course I wanted to study since I already understood the mechanics of it. Before I could actually decide on the course I wanted, I had to do National Service. I was given the vocation of an air force technician and that somehow rekindled my love for engineering. Since young, I have always enjoyed building structures out of lego blocks and because of that I took part in a structure building competition during secondary school. I decided to find out more about the engineering courses offered in university and concluded that civil engineering was the course I wanted. After all, I felt that civil engineering was a meaningful job and I wanted to challenge myself in taking this course.

One of my key interests would be traveling. I always make an effort to visit a new place every time I have the ability to do so. I love traveling as it helps to broaden my perspective and teaches me to appreciate the things around me. There is always something for me to takeaway after visiting a country. Another hobby of mine would be swimming. I find swimming to be a rather relaxing sport while keeping fit at the same time

.

One of my strengths in communication would be the ability to give presentations comfortably. This is probably due to the experience I have gained from my course of study in polytechnic. I often had to give sales pitches to lecturers and industry clients. I could say that I have managed to gain confidence from the numerous presentations I have completed previously. Nick Vujicic is someone I respect a lot in the world of effective communication. He highlighted to me the power of expressions that can be used to captivate the audience and I could not agree more with you that effective communication is not just science but also art.

My weakness in communication would be my poor command of the language. I always have problems dealing with grammar issues and I reckoned that it had got to be related to my lack of reading. I find the language complex with many rules to follow. However, I am willing to put in the effort to improve by the end of the course under the professional guidance of yours.  

Through the span of this module, I aim to become a better communicator and I hope to brush up on my language. I believe as an university graduate-to-be, there ought to be certain standards I have to uphold so as to carry out my tasks professionally.

I appreciate your time in reading this introduction and I hope you have a good day ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Lu Sheng

Edited 10/04/2019 11.05pm
Edited 22/01/2019 1.05am
Edited 20/01/2019 6.55pm
Commented on Baizurah, 20/01/2019
Commented on Alfian, 20/01/2019
Commented on Nurul, 20/01/2019

Welcome to Lu Sheng's blog on Effective Communication!

Through the use of blogging, I hope to improve my communication and writing skills via the application of related academic materials.

Cheers!