DOMESTIC AIR CONDITIONING
Climate change and insulation standards
Air conditioning for the home has been slow to take off in the UK. However, there are several reasons why this is changing. David Dunn, director and general manager of Toshiba Air Conditioning and CIAT Ozonair reports
T
here may still be debate in some quarters, however the truth is that Climate change is a reality, and there is a clear upward trend in average temperatures over time. The Met Office recently confirmed that last year, 2016, was the warmest since records began. This reflects a combination of both peak summer temperatures and overall average temperatures across the year.
As a result there is a growing need for some form of assisted cooling to make buildings more comfortable, particularly in summer months.
A significant contributory factor here is the increase in insulation standards as a result of the revised Building Regulations. This has had an impact on commercial buildings, but the requirement to improve insulation has been focussed, in particular, on residential properties.
Add to this the mandatory improvements in building air tightness, and the effect has been to make domestic dwellings increasingly heat retentive – to the increasing discomfort of occupants.
A recent study* found that overheating in homes is now a nationwide and growing problem that can result in buildings becoming practically uninhabitable in peak summer months. According to the report, by Loughborough University’s
48 March 2017
School of Civil and Building Engineering, overheating is particularly serious in new homes and can pose a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of occupants.
In the most extreme cases, it can even lead to premature death, with vulnerable groups such as the elderly or sick being most at risk.
For example, during the heatwave of 2003, there were more than 2000 excess deaths in England; some 680 during the heatwave of 2006, and 300 deaths attributable to abnormal heat conditions in 2009.
The whole thrust of building regulations since the Sixties has been to cut heat loss in cold weather through minimum standards for insulation and leakage. However, there is no corollary requirement to limit maximum indoor temperatures in summer. The result is that average heat loss from homes has been reduced by 23 per cent since 1970. As warming resulting from climate change continues, it is believed that by 2040, temperatures in the UK during the exceptional summer of 2003 will be considered normal and heat-related deaths could treble.
The trend towards people working from home, with the additional heat load from IT equipment, is another factor stimulating interest in domestic air conditioning. A well-
www.acr-news.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
