Brenda Boardman

Brenda Boardman MBE (born 1943) is a research fellow at University of Oxford and a campaigner against fuel poverty.

She provided the evidence and theory base for measuring the energy inefficiency of houses, coined the term 'affordable warmth'[2] and has influenced UK government policy in this area.

The overall focus of Boardman's research can be described as how to reduce demand for energy across the UK economy, and particularly the built environment, through using more energy-efficient homes and appliances.

Her research brought together information from physics, building engineering, human physiology, economics and sociology for a novel broad view of fuel poverty.

[9] Boardman also discussed a link between global warming and fuel poverty in her book as a further reason for needing to have energy-efficient homes.

[11] She was initially employed in a post on energy efficiency funded by Powergen in the university's new Environmental Change Unit and also appointed as a senior research fellow at St Hilda's College.

She eventually became head of the Lower Carbon Futures team and a co-director of the UK Energy Research Centre in the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford.

[4] She was a trustee of the Chesshire–Lehmann fund that between 2010 and 2016 supported research or evaluation into the relationship between fuel poverty and energy efficiency.