Assessing impacts of summertime overheating: some adaptation strategies

Abstract

The UK is predicted to experience warmer summers in the future, but the domestic building stock in England was not designed to cope with this change. The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) 2009 is used to assess the current state of the English building stock in terms of its vulnerability to overheating. The English Housing Survey 2009 provided data for 16 150 dwellings which are weighted to represent the housing stock. SAP predicts 82% of dwellings are currently at ‘slight’ risk of overheating and 41% at medium to high risk. If summer temperatures become 1.4°C warmer, then 99% of properties are predicted to have a medium to high risk of overheating. Several potential adaptations to the housing stock were considered to reduce overheating. Although ventilation strategies had the largest positive effect, the use of solar shading and shutters which allow secure ventilation could reduce vulnerability to overheating in the current climate. In a warmer climate, although some dwellings would still be at slight risk, the results suggest that solar shading strategies could reduce the percentage of those at medium to high risk to 6%. Future energy efficiency programmes will need to include adaptation measures to prevent overheating.