Overheating in Scotland: contributing factors in occupied homes

Abstract

There is growing awareness of the overheating risks in new-build properties in the UK. However, this tends to be considered a problem principally for the southern regions in the UK, only becoming a serious issue in the North of England in the medium term and in the long term for Scotland. This notion tends to be largely predicated upon climate change predictions, differences in latitude and summer air temperatures. This paper describes the results from Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) studies over a two-year period from 26 occupied new-build homes across Scotland which demonstrated incidences of overheating.Results suggest that low energy buildings are susceptible to overheating despite northerly latitudes, with 54% of houses studied overheating for more than six months annually, and 27% of homes overheating for less than 10% of the year.Evidence indicated that commonly used prediction tools do not appear to adequately anticipate overheating. This paper maps common overheating causes due to design and the role of occupants, identifying the risks due to the regulatory system, prediction and procurement processes, and the design and construction.A common finding was that design and occupancy factors appear to greater impact on overheating more than location and climatic factors.

Mitigation and adaptation in multifamily housing: overheating and climate justice

“…Living without thermal retrofit: behavioural options and communication challengesOptimising window ventilation at night (cf.Figure 9)shows the enormous influence of residents on overheating, which has also been confirmed by previous studies(Bouchama et al 2007;Ezratty & Ormandy 2015;Lomas & Porritt 2016;Toulemon & Barbieri 2008;Vandentorren et al 2006). This result applies to both retrofitted and non-retrofitted buildings, confirming the ' occupancy overrides design' principle(Morgan, Foster, Poston, & Sharpe 2016). This opens further potential for improving climate justice, particularly for the most disadvantaged.…”

Energy poverty and indoor cooling: An overlooked issue in Europe

“…From the evidence available to us, we have identified that perceived overheating during summer occurs all across Europe, including within countries that have milder climates and where this phenomenon was thought to be rare, such as the UK (Morgan et al, 2017). The findings have also revealed driving forces of vulnerability to excessive indoor heat.…”

“…Of the European literature that does exist on cooling in buildings and vulnerability, a large proportion of papers take a technical perspective on temperature measurement and adaption, such as a Special Issue on overheating in buildings edited by Lomas and Porritt (2016). This work establishes that overheating is a phenomenon that is already occurring in regions that were thought to be at low risk, such as within Scotland (Morgan et al, 2017), and that it disproportionately occurs within vulnerable households (Vellei et al, 2017). Within Spain, researchers have begun to propose new methods for including energy cooling needs within the definition of energy poverty (Sánchez-Guevara Sánchez et al, 2017) by exploring temperature thresholds specific to the Spanish context.…”

Indoor Air Quality in Passivhaus Dwellings: A Literature Review

“…If proper instructions and guidance are given, problems in installation and commissioning could be prevented, thus averting problems with operation and performance. Recent studies have also found incidents of overheating in Passivhaus [104,108,109], complaints regarding the noise of the MVHR [62,91,104,105], cold draughts [104] and occupants' experiences when interacting with the ventilation unit [70]. These problems may lead to the intermittent or seasonal use of MVHR systems as one of the many occupant responses to such deficiencies.…”