Abstract
Indoor temperatures during winter conditions play an important role in influencing the comfort and health of households, space heating energy demand and peak heating power. The role that physical dwelling features and household characteristics have on wintertime indoor temperatures has been examined among low-income households, but not across English households in a systematic manner. This paper examines determinants of indoor air temperatures during wintertime conditions to examine how temperature conditions vary with, for example, dwelling age or household socio-economic conditions. Using a cross-sectional survey of English dwellings that included monitoring of indoor air temperatures from January 2011 to February 2012, this study examines the determinants of indoor temperatures during wintertime conditions within a representative sample of English dwellings (N=821). The study analysed indoor temperatures standardised to outdoor air temperatures of 0°C, 5°C and 10°C within the study sample and the influence of physical dwelling features (type, age, size), household characteristics (tenure, income, composition, benefit receipt) and energy performance (loft and wall insulation, heating system and performance rating levels). The analysis finds that as dwelling age decreased (i.e. newer), so did indoor air temperatures in both the living room and bedrooms, after adjusting for a selection of dwelling and household characteristics. Compared to the lowest income quintile, households with higher incomes kept warmer temperatures, but this was not a linear increase and the highest incomes were not on average the warmest. There appears, however, to be little change in the dwelling temperature trends when looking at lower or higher outdoor air temperature conditions (i.e. 0°C and 10°C). In designing policies to improve indoor thermal conditions, policymakers will need to consider underlying energy performance of the dwelling alongside the socio-economic conditions of the household, for example when providing fuel support payments to at risk households.
Highlights
Exposure to wintertime indoor temperatures remains an important determinant of health for English households
Using the English Follow Up Survey (EFUS), the largest cross-sectional survey of dwelling characteristics and indoor temperatures measurements in England, this study examined the relationship between living room and bedroom indoor temperature and a selection of dwelling features, household characteristics and energy and environmental performance
Regardless, we find evidence to support the hypothesis that on average older dwellings are colder than newer dwellings, after being adjusted, but that the newest dwellings are not the warmest, and this may reflect energy performance not captured within the E-value measure and occupant behaviours and pReferences
Summary
Exposure to wintertime indoor temperatures remains an important determinant of health for English households. Indoor temperatures are influenced by a range of factors, including regional climate, social practices, building energy performance, and fuel prices to name a few. This means that determinants of indoor temperatures will be reflective of local contextual drivers, for example, a recent study of indoor thermal conditions in China found a tendency of very low average indoor wintertime temperatures (e.g. 13 ◦C) and were influenced by income, presence of children and heating system type [10]. The objective of this study is to better understand what dwelling and household characteristics influence wintertime indoor temperatures in England, which is marked by high levels of excess winter mortality and fuel poverty [4,14]. The following studies are included here due to their specific focus on determinants of indoor temperatures among the English household population
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