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PERFORMANCE GAP
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VENTILATION & INDOOR AIR QUALITY
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OVERHEATING
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Overheating

Overheating is becoming increasingly common in certain types of new and refurbished homes, and our changing climate is likely to further increase the likelihood of it occurring. It is therefore essential for building designers to address the issue. Skilful design, using passive strategies, can significantly reduce or avoid the risk of overheating by carefully balancing the retention of useful heat when it is needed, minimising the amount of unwanted heat when it is not, and providing secure and controllable ways of purging excess heat. The Buildings Hub is working with a number of organisations to provide advice and information on this issue to those who need it.

  • Designer's Handbook
    December 2016
    This handbook sets out the key design requirements for delivering comfortable, healthy, low energy homes that perform as intended.
  • Drivers of Change
    March 2016
    This leaflet sets out some of the patterns, statistics and projections relevant to the future extent of Overheating in homes.
  • Solutions to Overheating in Homes
    March 2016
    This leaflet highlights some of the many technical and behavioural solutions which can be used to avoid or reduce overheating in homes without automatically resorting to energy-using cooling systems.
  • Defining Overheating
    March 2016
    This leaflet provides an introduction to the range of overheating definitions and thresholds in use in the Housing sector and also by health professionals.
  • Assessing Overheating Risk
    March 2016
    This leaflet introduces the variety of methods being used by Housing Providers and Building Professionals to assess overheating risk, including SAP Appendix P, dynamic thermal simulation and the Passive House Planning Package.
  • Overheating Risk Mapping
    March 2016
    This leaflet introduces current overheating in buildings research and risk mapping methods, including outcomes presented at a city or regional level, and a national level.
  • Impacts of Overheating in Homes
    March 2016
    This leaflet highlights and summarises some of the key impacts of overheating in homes for Housing Providers and Building Professionals.