Ventilation and thermal comfort in UK homes: can we maintain indoor air quality and reduce the threat of future air-conditioning of UK homes?
Ben Roberts, Loughborough
Summary
As we refurbish increasing numbers of UK homes for energy efficiency, we are introducing a risk of overheating in summer, particularly for the future as the climate warms. This is a problem for those that shape our Building Regulations and guidelines.
The aims of this study are to empirically evaluate and explain the thermal comfort and airflow effects of different ventilation and shading strategies in a real, typical 1930s semi-detached house in Loughborough, UK. To determine the effect of different ventilation and shading strategies and their influence on thermal comfort in other UK locations. To design the ideal strategy for providing optimum summertime thermal comfort for occupants.
Tracer gas methods will be used to quantitatively measure the air change rates under various ventilation scenarios with side-by-side comparisons of a matched pair of synthetically occupied test houses used to identify the effects on occupant thermal comfort and overheating under different window opening strategies.
The outputs of this work will recommend optimum window and blind operation to prevent summertime overheating, reducing excess summer deaths and heatwave-linked burdens on health services.
Journal articles:
A matched pair of test houses with synthetic occupants to investigate summertime overheating