A summary of research from across the Network projects, written for decision-makers and highlighting the latest results and implications for end users.<\/p>\n
We all live and work in buildings; maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature is vital to ensuring our general well-being and productivity. Warmer summers can increase the risk of overheating, varying from building to building, depending on factors such as location, fabric, orientation and use. Without intervention, many existing buildings will become uncomfortable places to live and work in the future whilst new buildings need to be designed to meet the challenges of a changing climate.<\/p>\n
Overheating of homes during the summer is likely to become more common in the UK as a result of our changing climate. This paper describes the key findings of research to identify the best ways to adapt existing homes to reduce the risk of overheating. Various retrofitting options and packages are presented that could be considered now, if overheating is already an issue, or in the future.<\/p>\n
This advice is relevant to homeowners that are looking to retrofit or improve the performance of their homes, landlords that are looking at retrofitting more than one property and policy makers that are working on relevant policies.<\/p>\n
Most housing retrofits aim to reduce energy used for winter heating. However, climate change means that there is likely to be an increase in temperatures, including the potential for warmer periods and heatwaves. The last major heatwave in the UK, in August 2003, led to over 2000 excess deaths.<\/p>\n
Home refurbishment should provide a safe and comfortable environment throughout the year, which will include measures to minimise overheating, as well as reducing demand for heating.<\/p>\n
Two EPSRC funded research projects investigated the thermal performance of different types of UK homes and used computer tools to assess different types of retrofit options to tackle potential overheating.<\/p>\n
The CREW<\/a> project looked at: typical 1930s semi-detached house, 1960s ground, mid-floor and top floor flats, Victorian (19th century) end and mid-terraced houses and modern detached house (constructed to 2006 Building Regulations).<\/p>\n The SNACC<\/a> project looked at semi-detached, purpose built flats (mid floor), mid-terraced and detached houses, all constructed between 1919 and mid 2000s. SNACC also looked at the costs of different options and packages for options for a semi-detached house, purpose-built flat (ground and top floor) and block of 16 flats similarly constructed to the purpose-built flat.<\/p>\n These housing types are the most common ones in the south-east of England. Although both projects used different construction details, occupancy patterns and overall assumptions to model their selected house types, there are some key messages that could be derived from the resulting research:<\/p>\n The costs associated with different retrofitting packages were explored by both projects. CREW developed a tool that provides costs of different packages against thermal performance improvements, for different building types. SNACC developed a catalogue of packages for three building types, a semi-detached house, purpose-built flat (ground and top floor) and block of 16 flats similarly constructed to the purpose- Both research groups looked at retrofitting packages that both reduced overheating risk in the summer and heating demand in the winter. They found that:<\/p>\n A semi-detached house, 1930s\u20131950s construction, 3 bed, west facing, day time unoccupied (see Appendix for more information).<\/p>\n The CREW team has identified current overheating risk of the base case* of 170 degree hours. A reduction of overheating risk up to 60% was achieved using the above retrofit package, as well as 20\u201340% reduction in heating energy.<\/p>\n *Please note that there are differences between the base case buildings used by each project, e.g. CREW has assumed that a minimum upgrade of 100mm loft insulation and double glazing have been already undertaken to the property. SNACC assumes single glazing and insulated roof.Also, the SNACC results are from Oxford which will be a bit cooler that the London Heathrow location used by CREW.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 2012 A summary of research from across the Network projects, written for decision-makers and highlighting the latest results and implications for end users. We all live and work in buildings; maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature is vital to ensuring our general well-being and productivity. Warmer summers can increase the risk of overheating, varying from … Continue reading Adapting UK homes \u2013 policy & practice<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":23047,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"arcc-2col-page.php","meta":[],"tags":[56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23118\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arcc-network.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Key messages<\/h2>\n
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Effective adaptation options<\/h2>\n
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The cost of effective adaptation<\/h2>\n
\nbuilt flat.<\/p>\n\n
Example<\/h3>\n
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Appendix<\/h2>\n
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\n Sample adaptation package from SNACC project<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Adaptation options<\/th>\n Cost<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Low-e double glazing<\/td>\n \u00a35,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n High albedo wall<\/td>\n \u00a33,750<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Louvered internal shading<\/td>\n low<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cavity wall insulation<\/td>\n \u00a31,100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Total<\/th>\n \u00a39,850<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Overheating definition \u2013 1% of occupied hours above or equal to 28\u00b0C
\nThe SNACC team has identified no overheating risk of the base case* under current climate and until the 2030s.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n Sample adaptation package from CREW project<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Adaptation options<\/th>\n Cost<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Low-e triple glazing<\/td>\n \u00a39,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Reflective wall coating<\/td>\n \u00a31,200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Louvered internal shading<\/td>\n \u00a32,200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cavity wall insulation<\/td>\n \u00a3200 (subsidised price)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Total<\/th>\n \u00a313,100<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Overheating definition – the number of degree hours over the comfort threshold temperatures (28\u00b0C for living areas and 26\u00b0C for bedrooms) for the occupied periods. Each 1\u00b0C over the threshold temperature for 1 hour equals 1 degree hour. Therefore, a bedroom at 30\u00b0C for 1 hour would add 4 degree hours to the total for the heatwave period.<\/p>\n