Research Project

Hi, I am studying Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology and am working on my Research Project. My subject for my research is about fuel poverty and the Green Deal and I want to do a quantitative research question, for example analysing data sets. However my first degree is in English Literature and I do not know how to design an appropriate research question. I think I could do the analysis on excel myself, I have some good books. I can't ask my research supervisor because she told me to do a critical discourse analysis which I don't want to do. I can't really talk to her because I get anxious around people and am quite passive. Also I feel I am in no position to argue with her because I do not know how to design this question myself. Could anyone explain how I can do this? Thanks xx

Ok what is the "green deal" and fuel poverty.
Start of by defining them firmly and tell me and i'll help you create a question.

Hi, the Green Deal is a government scheme set up to help people without the required capital to improve the energy efficiency of their homes by giving the person on a loan. The loan can be used to improve thermal efficiency of the building by insulating walls and lofts. The loan could cover the cost of a new boiler. The loan could aid a household to generate their own clean renewable energy by offering a loan to install solar panels. Fuel poverty refers to the amount of money a household had to spend in order to achieve an adequate standard of heating which is defined as 18 C or 21C. If a household spends more than 10 per cent of it's income on fuel then such a household is identified as being in fuel poverty. Thanks

This journal article abstract explains some more:

"Energy efficiency and social programmes have failed to stem the dramatic increase in the number of fuel poor households in recent years. As the 2016 deadline for eradicating fuel poverty nears, energy efficiency and fuel poverty programmes are undergoing significant changes. The ambitions for Britain's Green Deal, the overhaul of supplier obligations alongside the winding down of Warm Front, and the introduction of an incentive for renewable heat combine to form a sea change in how energy efficiency and fuel poverty objectives are financed and delivered. Green Deal Finance (GDF) eliminates the up-front capital cost of energy efficiency measures to the household by linking repayments to energy savings and spreading them over many years. This paper asks whether and how GDF could be beneficial to fuel poor households. Using scenarios modelled on the English House Condition Survey, it explores the extent to which fuel poverty could be reduced, allowing for repayments incurred by GDF. It examines how much further fuel poverty could be alleviated were the capital cost subsidised or repayments supported, and concludes that a flexible design for GDF is necessary if it is to contribute to alleviating fuel poverty" - Pedro Guertlar