Ranking of interventions to reduce dwelling overheating during heat waves

Estimating the Influence of Housing Energy Efficiency and Overheating Adaptations on Heat-Related Mortality in the West Midlands, UK

“…Certain dwelling variants, such as flats, mid terraced houses, and bungalows were found to be at elevated risk of high indoor temperatures. Heat-related adaptations to dwellings showed decreases in indoor temperatures in line with previous modelling studies on overheating in housing [13,14], while changes to indoor temperatures following energy efficiency adaptations also reflect those from previous modelling studies [11,12].…”

The impact of regulations on overheating risk in dwellings

“…A number of authors have explored potential solutions to overheating in domestic buildings (for example see Gupta & Gregg, 2012, Porritt, Cropper, Shao & Goodier, 2012, van Hoff, Blocken, Henson & Timmermans, 2015. These studies found that adaptation measures such as shutters and fixed shading, reductions in solar/fabric gains, increased surface albedo and the use of thermal mass may help reduce future overheating, although the magnitude of the influence of thermal mass has been questioned (Kendrick, Odgen, Wang & Baiche 2012).…”

Overheating in retrofitted flats: occupant practices, learning and interventions

“…Although the monitored period in the summer of 2013 did not exceed a daily running mean of 18.5°C , there were nevertheless significant overheating issues reported by the occupants. Overheating might typically have been further avoided in the given context by always opening windows when the external temperature is lower than the internal one, and using internal shading during the day to reduce solar gain (Porritt et al, 2012). However, none of the sample households adopted such a scenario, partly because although shading options were there, open windows could not be left unattended and partly because occupants were not aware of best practice.…”

“…For example, external solar shading, although typically found in vernacular residential architecture in southern Europe and confirmed by models as an effective tool for the UK, is not obligatory in the British residential sector (BPIE, 2015). The impact of user behaviour on overheating in a domestic environment, though significant (O'Brien, 2016), is also not sufficiently understood, despite on-going field and modelling studies (Porritt et al, 2012;Arethusa et al, 2014). This has implications for the validity of modelled overheating predictions which inform design guidelines and for overheating action plans to minimise the impact of heatwaves on public health (Lowe, 2011;D'Ippoliti, 2009).…”