Overheating in a UK High-rise Retrofit Apartment Block - Ranking of Measures Available to Case Study Occupants Based on Modelling

Overheating in the residential buildings has been identified as a major challenge in terms of public health especially in an urban context. Increased duration and frequency of heatwaves associated with climate change will increase the severity of overheating. However to date overheating has not been adequately addressed by the building regulations. In a case study retrofit high rise apartment block in Leeds, UK major overheating has been identified through and in-depth building performance evaluation (BPE) study. The study was extended with transient dynamic modelling of top floor apartments to explore the effectiveness of 18 fabric and practices scenarios based on actual BPE findings. The results show 10-30% difference in overheating severity was caused by a performance gap in relation to the building fabric. What's more they indicate that in the given climatic conditions of summer 2013 overheating might have been avoided if shading was introduced and mechanical extract ventilation used as designed. This points towards the need of focusing more attention on overheating prevention at design and handover stages.