Estimating overheating in European dwellings: Fid-Bau Portal

Estimating overheating in European dwellings

Brotas, Luisa / Nicol, Fergus

In recent years, the urgent need to adapt our lifestyles and buildings to deal with a more extreme and a warming climate has become clear, not least through the increasing overheating of buildings. This is reflected in the rising concerns about the discomfort and heat stress to building occupants caused by the increasing indoor temperatures. European standard BS15251 and Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) guidance note TM52 are documents that address the issue. Both include a methodology predicting the probability of overheating in buildings. Despite this, many modern buildings overheat. This paper looks at the criteria from CIBSE TM52 and discusses their applicability to a single UK dwelling archetype. This was modelled and then located in a range of European cities to understand the causes of overheating and the means of reducing it. Results highlight some problems in practice using simulations tools to evaluate overheating and the fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Energy performance and thermal comfort of dwellings were assessed using morphed climates for each location for 2020, 2050 and 2080.