Presentations

Building Utopia – What if every building performed perfectly?

Videos

How the sun affects us

This video explains how the sun affects us and the buildings we live and work in. It explains the impact of solar heat gain and why its hotter in the summer.

What is a U-value?

This video explains what a U-value is and how it can be calculated by using an example with windows in a home. This video also explains the insulating properties of blinds and shutters.

Keeping commercial buildings cool

This video explains how external shading reduces solar gain in commercial and public buildings preventing overheating and improving productivity and wellbeing.

How the sun affects usKeeping your home cooler with external shading

This video produced explains how external shading can be used to reduce solar heat gain and reduce overheating in homes.

Solar shading reduces overheating in homes

This video summarises some real life monitoring of flats in north London in the late summer and early autumn of 2016. The monitoring was led by the BBSA’s PhD Researcher Zoe De Grussa and her team from London South Bank University. It highlights the significant benefit external and internal shading bring to reducing internal operative temperatures.

Time-lapse showing varying light levels

This time lapse video produced by London Southbank University PhD researcher, Zoe De Grussa, for the British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA) shows that on two consecutive days in September 2016 there is one day of relatively consistent light levels and the following day continually variable light levels due to cloud cover.

Window blinds help to attenuate these varying light levels.

The effective control of light and glare

This video produced by the British Blind and Shutter Association explains how blinds and shutters can help control light levels and glare for the comfort and wellbeing of a building’s occupants.

Keeping warmer at home with blinds and shutters

This video explains how blinds and shutters can be used to reduce heat loss through windows thereby reducing heating bills.

Energy balance

This video produced by The Velux Group simply explains what a building’s energy balance means.

Publications

Solar Shading Reduces Overheating

Solar Shading Reduces Overheating

This brochure is a simple summary of a case study into overheating in some London flats undertaken by the BBSA’s PhD Researcher, Zoe De Grussa.

This brochure highlights the maximum operative temperature without solar shading and the minimum operative temperatures recorded when solar shading was applied.

There is also a summary of light levels recorded inside the property.

To download the brochure click here: Overheating in September

Video summary of this case study

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Velux – Healthy homes barometer 2017

Homes and Inhabitants’ Health

The Healthy Homes Barometer is a series of Pan-European surveys published annually by the Velux Group. The 2017 edition also includes the analysis of the impact buildings have on health. This is the first report that shows the correlation between the building’s state and the health of its inhabitants.

Researchers from Ecofys analysed results for more than 100,000 individual households and more than 250,000 adults in twenty-seven EU member states and combined those with data from Survey on Income and Living Conditions, together with more than 200 scientific publications covering the impact of damp and mould on respiratory illnesses.

Unhealthy Homes

According to the publication, one in six Europeans report living in an unhealthy building, one that is damp, does not have enough daylight or is uncomfortably hot or cold. With 90% of our time spent indoors, two-thirds of it within the home, the likelihood of experiencing poor health increases substantially if we live in an unhealthy building.

Energy Poverty

Poor health is also linked to energy poverty. Eat or heat, the dilemma is faced by 49 million Europeans and means that one in three has difficulties making ends meet and over half of those live in a cold dwelling. This is due to rising energy prices, low income and energy-inefficient buildings.

Energy Inefficient Homes

There are 110 million detached and semi-detached single-family homes throughout Europe, however up to three out of four are not energy efficient. The majority of these (84%) are owned by private homeowners and renovations depend on their individual finances.

Staged Renovations and Their Benefits

The survey revealed that around 70% of European households would be able to afford a staged renovation that would transform a house into an energy-efficient and healthy home. With 40% of Europe’s energy being consumed by homes and buildings and 36% of CO2 emissions emitted by them, private homeowners are key to achieving a more energy-efficient building stock. Renovations would not only deliver long-term savings through improved energy efficiency but also offer improved living conditions and contribute to the future value of their property.

However, the current renovation rate of the existing buildings is low, with only 1-2% of the building stock renovated each year. Almost three out of four homeowners would renovate if it increased the comfort and well-being of their family and 75% in order to save energy costs. Addressing both will help encourage a higher renovation rate and bring large scale benefits to the society.

You can download a copy of the report here.

How Can Solar Shading Help?

Solar shading can improve living conditions in homes and help save money on energy bills. Blinds and shutters help keep heat indoors during colder months and helps us to reduce excessive heat gainsduring the warmer months.

See our videos on keeping warmer in winter and cooler in summer with solar shading.

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Solar shading saves energy – and that’s just the start

This brochure highlights the energy saving and the many other benefits of solar shading as identified in the Solar Shading Impact Report commissioned by the BBSA from The National Energy Foundation (you can see the full scientific report here).

Solar shading saves energy

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ES-SO – A new vision on solar shading

In this document

The European Solar-Shading Organisation (ES-SO), provide an overview of the importance of solar shading. It emphasises the importance of solar and daylight management to the energy performance of buildings and highlights the impact of dynamic solar shading systems to reducing energy use and CO2 emissions and increasing productivity, health and wellbeing of building occupants.

Key Findings

  • “Energy Performance of Buildings Directive recommends solar shading as one of the most energy efficient solutions available.”
  • “Shading is cost efficient delivering energy savings of up to 60 times its CO2 footprint over its 20-year lifespan.”
  • “Maximum colour spectrum daylight – not just daylight – is essential for general wellbeing.”

Further Detail

The EU has highlighted the importance of reducing our carbon foot print by introducing the 20-20-20 targets and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive in 2010. Through improving the building envelope, which provides a thermal barrier between the interior and exterior in buildings we can control comfort, natural lighting and ventilation levels and how much energy is used to heat and cool our buildings.

Solar shading is recommended as one of the most energy efficient solutions in reducing overheating in highly insulated and airtight buildings.

Using blinds and shutters can reduce the requirement for artificial lighting by up to 80% and enable passive heating of rooms in winter. As 90% of our day is spent indoors, the need for daylight in our buildings has increased as it can improve our health, wellbeing and productivity. Solar shading combined with clear glazing guarantees the full spectrum of visual daylight which is essential for general wellbeing. This combination of shading and glazing provides the best Colour Rendering Index (CRI) which measures how faithfully the appearance of visual colours are in comparison to daylight without any filter.

There are 2 billion energy inefficient window units in the EU, 44% of which are single glazed and 42% uncoated double-glazed. A study across Europe has identified that cooling savings are higher for façades facing between south-east and west and heating energy savings can be gained by closing shading devices at night as it will improve the U-Value of the window system reducing heat loss. The reduction in U-value can be as much as 55% for single glazing and 40% for uncoated double-glazing depending on the shading type selected.

Download this document here: ES-SO – A new vision on solar shading

 
 
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BBSA – Guide to low energy shading

This comprehensive guidance on the energy and comfort benefits of solar shading was prepared by the BBSA and incorporated into PAS 2030 (Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings).

BBSA – Guide to low energy shading

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ES-SO – Solar shading for low energy buildings

This comprehensive document produced by the European Solar Shading Organisation (ES-SO) details the scientific evidence for the energy saving benefits of solar shading.

ES-SO – Solar shading for low energy buildings

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Winter energy saving in homes

This simple brochure highlights the winter energy saving benefits of blinds and shutters for homes.

BBSA Energy Saving Leaflet Homes

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Guidance Notes

Guidance Note - Double skin facades (DSF)

Guidance Note – Solar gain – A specifier’s guide

Guidance Note – Solar energy transmittance (g-value)

Guidance Note – What is solar gain?

Guidance Note – Solar shading and air conditioning in existing buildings

Guidance Note – Solar shading and air conditioning

Guidance Note – Glare

Guidance Note – U-values

Guidance Note – Standards

Guidance Note – Behavioural change

Guidance Note – Openness coefficient

Scientific Reports

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Case study on overheating of flats in London

The BBSA’s PhD Researcher, Zoe De Grussa carried out environmental monitoring of some flats in north London in late summer and early autumn 2016.

The monitoring involved taking operative temperatures in a flat without solar shading (control) and then applying different solar shaidng devices to an adjacent flat to test the benefit solar shading can bring to reducing operative temperatures.

The maximum operative temperature recorded in the unshaded roof was 47.5C and external shading was proven to reduce internal operative temperatures by between 10 – 18C and internal solar shading by 8 – 13C (at 95% confidence levels).

The resultant paper A Case Study assessing the impact of Shading Systems combined with Night-Time Ventilation strategies on Overheating within a Residential Property was first presented at the 38th AIVC – 6th TightVent & 4th Venticool Conference, 2017 Ventilating healthy low-energy buildings, 13-14 September 2017, University Of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.

Download the report here: Overheating Case Study, De Gussa et al

See a video summary of this report here.

See a simple two page summary here.

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CO2 Reduction with external venetian blinds

This study was undertaken by the Austrian Association of Sunscreen Technology (BVST) and shows that an external venetian blind saves almost 60 times the CO2 in effectively controlling a building’s internal environment than it takes to manufacture the blind.

Download the report here: CO2 Reduction with external shading.

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Somfy - The energy effects of controlling solar shading

A paper produced by Somfy

and Building Research Establishment (BRE) examines the energy and thermal comfort implications of installing solar shading. Two buildings were simulated under a range of different shading and control systems (both automatically and manually controlled) in three different UK locations. The study recorded the calculated delivered energy, carbon dioxide emissions, energy costs and internal temperatures for the same five cases of selected shading systems.

Key Findings:

  • “Additional CO2 savings with automatic control of shading, of around 3% compared to simple manually controlled of fixed systems”
  • “…an automatically controlled shading system gave building CO2 savings of 9% (with internal blinds) and 8% (with external blinds) in the London area compared to the no shading case.”
  • “The benefits of shading are latitude dependant; in Scotland installation of external shading gave an energy penalty of between 3% and 9%.”
  • “Thermal comfort is critically important too.”

Further Details:

In this simulation study, two types of buildings were modelled: an air-conditioned office, and a naturally ventilated hospital block. These were monitored and reviewed in three different locations in the UK: London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Each type of building in each of the above locations was modelled under the five different types of shading below:

  1. internal shading (roller blinds) that were manually controlled;
  2. internal as above that were automatically controlled with a manual override;
  3. fixed external shading (simple overhang);
  4. moveable external shading (venetian blind and closed when lowered) that was automatically controlled with a manual override; and
  5. no shading as a base case.

In the analysis, the addition of shading always produces a reduction of cooling demand and an increase in artificial lighting and, nearly always, heating. The only exception is in the hospital where adding internal blinds slightly reduces the heating load. This is because of heat loss through windows during cold nights.

The results for the office building show that substantial cooling savings are possible. External automatic shading control achieves the biggest savings in cooling energy compared to the no shading case. It gives a 66% reduction in London, 77% in Manchester and 85% in Edinburgh. Cooling savings are best achieved with external devices that prevent solar gains. When these savings are balanced against the increases in heating and lighting energy use, internal automatic shading produces the best results in all locations, with a total delivered energy reduction of up to 6.6% in London.

Comparison of the automatically controlled external shading with the simple fixed overhang shows that the controlled shading gives an additional 5% reduction in energy cost in London, 2% in Manchester but an energy penalty (increase in energy cost) of 6% in Edinburgh. This is due to the colder climate and the increase in space heating costs in winter because the modelling takes into account occupants adjusting the shading to reduce glare. A combination of automatically controlled internal shading (winter) and external shading (summer) could result in the best strategy for energy savings and comfort levels in an air conditioned building.

When reviewing the results from the naturally ventilated hospital (no cooling installed), it was observed that any form of shading increases the energy use either in terms of heating or lighting (except for the one case where internal blinds were installed in a London hospital and heating loads were reduced). Therefore, internal shading results in an energy penalty of 1-3% with and external shading a penalty of 7-12% compared to the no shading case.

However, energy is not the only important issue. Thermal comfort is critically important too. A typical thermal comfort criterion for naturally ventilated buildings is a temperature of 25°C over less than 5% of occupied hours. Temperatures of over 28°C are very uncomfortable and should be avoided. The hospital design is particularly prone to overheating, especially in Southern England. Taking the hospital as a whole, temperature of 29°C is exceeded 9% of the year with no shading. Internal shading reduces the temperature slightly, fixed external shading gives a further reduction, but the most effective system uses the moveable automatically controlled shading. Further north, moveable automatically controlled solar shading limits overheating to a few ‘hot spots’.

Download a copy of this report here.

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World GBC - The business case for green building

This report produced by the World Green Building Council in 2013 is a review of the costs and benefits for developers, investors and occupants of green buildings. It highlights the significant benefits of daylight to a building’s occupants.

Download the report here.

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World GBC - Health, wellbeing & productivity in offices

This report produced by the World Green Building Council is a comprehensive investigation of the evidence surrounding comfort and wellbeing in offices where over 90% of the operating costs are the people who work in them.

Shading affects many of the key wellbeing factors identified in this report including, thermal comfort, daylighting, indoor air quality and views.

WGBC – Health Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices

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Glazing in buildings reducing energy use

This report was commissioned by the Glazing Supply Chain Group to investigate the energy saving benefits of glazing to the stock of UK buildings. It was produced by the National Energy Foundation (NEF).

Key mention of solar shading are:

p.10 Energy and CO2 savings

“In practice an optimal solar control strategy designed to maximise heat gain in winter and heat rejection in summer through use of adaptable shading systems would reduce the UK’s housing stock energy use on space heating and cooling.”

p.25 Mitigating overheating

“Non-domestic sector (new build) – advanced integrated south-facing façades incorporating movable shading systems with a different configuration under summer and winter conditions (adjusting the tilt angle) within the glazed skins.

Domestic sector (new build) – use of blinds and shutters; energy conscious occupant behaviour, more effective use of windows as ventilation systems.”

p.27 Solar control glass

“Consideration should also be given to the optimal integration of shading systems within the building envelope, e.g., a double skin façade. A high potential lies in this solution that combine the benefits of external shading, protected by the adverse effects of  weather, with natural ventilation flow created within the façade and high heat rejection. Advancements in controls are likely to push in the direction of automated shading systems able to provide flexible solutions to the occupants.”

p.45 Eliminating the need for cooling

“The energy demand for space cooling can be reduced in a variety of ways. Energy conscious occupant behaviour, the use of glass coatings or adjustable shading systems all contribute to reject heat in summer. Furthermore, not all solar control glass is coated.”

p.65 Strategic vision

“More sophisticated tools than those currently employed by the domestic sector are required. Selection and specification of glazing should be undertaken using dynamic simulation modelling which can enable the optimal selection of glazing U, g-values, and shading systems and films.”

p.74 Conclusions – Energy reduction potential from optimal solar control strategies

“Energy efficient optimisation of glass in buildings is partly dependent on solar control.

For some building types (e.g., air conditioned buildings), the solar heat gain coefficients range which can be practically specified (due to regulations and market availability) have a more significant impact than similarly adjusting U values. This might result in an overheating situation in highly glazed south facing facades of some commercial buildings such as offices unless appropriate shading systems are adopted.

Although air conditioning is not common in domestic properties, the recent demand for marketing products with high energy efficiency ratings i.e. high g-values might result in increased cooling requirements. Potential trade-offs between U- and g-values can be minimised through solar control strategies, and a more conscious occupant behaviour, that would allow to save in the UK housing stock an estimate of ~277 GWh for space cooling.”

Download the report here.

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Daylighting in schools

This study by Heschong Mahone Group

studied the effect of daylighting on childrens’ performance in school. It concluded that a focus should be on sky lighting as a way to isolate illumination effects from other qualities associated with daylighting from windows, such as view and ventilation. In this report, a statistically compelling connection between daylighting and student performance is established.

Key Findings

The study analysed test score results for 21,000 students from three districts located in the USA.

“The positive effect seen for skylights in all three districts also reinforces the thesis that daylighting in and of itself is important, in addition to whatever other attributes of windows may influence behaviour, such as view, communication, ventilation, or status.”

In the California school district, students with the most daylighting in their classrooms progressed 20% faster on maths tests and 26% on reading tests in one year than those with the least. Students in classrooms with the largest window areas were found to progress 15% faster in maths and 23% faster in reading. In addition, students that had a well-designed skylight improved 19-20% faster than the others. However, students that had classrooms where windows could be opened were found to progress 7-8% faster.

The studies in Seattle and Fort Collins showed that students in classrooms with the most daylighting were found to have 7-18% higher scores than those with the least.

Daylight is quite a complex phenomenon and there are many reasons why it might have an effect on human beings. The report says some explanations for this are simply educated guesses:

  • Higher illumination levels have repeatedly been shown to increase the visibility of tasks
  • Daylight has better “light quality” that is more appropriate for human visual tasks compared to electric lighting as there is a better distribution of light, better colour rendition, absence of flickering light and reduces sparkle and highlights on 3-dimensional objects
  • Daylight might improve performance through better long term health
  • Daylight may help the students directly by improving their mood, or indirectly, by improving the mood of the teachers
  • High illumination levels help to keep the children alert by suppressing the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone

To view this report click here.

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Life cycle assessment of blinds

Using LCA to illustrate the benefits of Blinds as passive and sustainable energy saving products in the domestic environment in the UK

This paper written by Dr Deborah Andrews of London South Bank University and supported by the BBSA.

It evaluates the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is a tool used to model the environmental impacts of products, to assess four different types of manual blind products, with different product life spans, levels of energy consumption and potential savings during the heating season in order to demonstrate the real benefits of this type of window covering in a UK domestic home.

Download the paper here: LCA Paper – Dr Andrews

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UK-GBC- Health & wellbeing in homes

The UK Green Building Council, of which the BBSA is a member, have produced this very interesting report on healthy homes. The report highlights that a healthy home is likely to be a sustainable one by design.

Download the report here: UKGBC Healthy Homes

Key mentions of solar shading include:

Design

p.19 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Sunlight can also improve the appearance and feel of a home. But this has to be carefully considered, as there are also times when sunlight will feel too intense or hot, and can be a cause of discomfort and glare. Sunlight is a source of heat, which is helpful in the winter when we are heating our homes, but can be a nuisance in the summer when we are not…”

p.20 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Shading in the form of blinds or curtains is recommended on any window or skylight that requires it, to avoid glare from sunlight; to provide privacy at night when the interior electric lighting is on; and to block daylight and sunlight when required to darken a space…”

p.21 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Windows are ‘machines’, in the sense that they combine multiple properties: they should be considered not just as transparent sections of wall, but as important multi-functional elements of the home. Good window design can enhance occupant wellbeing, both physically and psychologically. However, there are a number of common pitfalls which do quite the opposite. Too much glazing can negatively impact privacy, furniture layouts, amount of solar gain and heat loss.”

p.21 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“From a purely daylighting perspective, windows are better wide and high in the wall. Window sizes should be carefully considered and be fit for purpose. Large glazed areas can lead to the requirement for solar control coatings and triple glazing which will reduce light transmission.”

p.29 Section 1

“Orientate homes to allow for a balance of sun and shade: ideally homes would be designed to receive low level sun in winter and block out high level sun in summer.”

“Consider the size and specification of windows in relation to orientation and thermal comfort. Large windows facing south or west will have high heat gains unless measures such as external shading or solar control glazing are used to reduce the impact. Conversely large windows on north facing elevations will contribute to additional heat loss. See page 21 for more on windows.”

“Carry out overheating analysis at an early stage in the design process, to determine how to best design out overheating. Include future weather scenarios to futureproof designs.”

Solar gain

p.21 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Too much glass can lead to internal overheating. Use of solar control coatings is a valuable way to offset this but will reduce light transmission and can impact the colour rendering of glass. Solar control coatings can also reduce the amount of passive solar gain in winter, which would normally contribute to reducing heating loads. Moveable external shading provides the best balance between winter and summer needs.”

Heat loss

p.21 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Large areas of glass will increase heat loss. This leads to an argument to only use glass where it is useful for daylight or views. Use of triple glazing to offset large glazed areas will reduce light transmission, increase cost and increase weight/thickness of opening elements.”

p.21 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Blinds/curtains/external shade: the ability to open windows while shading or privacy devices are used should be provided.”

p.27 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“In recent years, we have seen a marked rise in the incidence of overheating, particularly in the new build sector. As the frequency and severity of heatwaves is predicted to increase due to climatic changes, addressing this issue is vitally important.”

p.28 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“It is through careful orientation, high levels of insulation, appropriate shading, air tightness levels and system design that the heating consumption of the homes has been reduced.”

Principle causes of overheating

“Solar gains through glazing (no shading)”

p.30 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“However, without careful design, there is a risk of overheating in highly insulated homes. The ZCH suggests that overheating could be an issue in up to 20 per cent of our current housing stock. This looks set to worsen if we do not address the issue, as the climate warms, and heatwaves become more frequent and more intense. In a 10 day heatwave in August 2003, over 2,000 excess deaths were thought to be attributable to overheating.”

p.32 Section 1: Designing Healthy Homes

“Cool rooms make for the best sleep – generally an optimal temperature of 18°C. Prevent summertime overheating by providing blinds or curtains and educating residents on their proper use.”

p.48 Section 3: Retrofit

“A retrofitted home can be cooler in the summer months, particularly if external wall insulation is installed and solar reflective glass is incorporated into new windows. Resilience to future climate change needs to be considered, and the opportunity to incorporate or enable easy future installation of shading devices…”

Download the report here: UKGBC Healthy Homes

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ZCH - Solutions to overheating in homes

This Evidence Review produced by Building Research Establishment (BRE) for the Zero Carbon Hub describes the range of technical and behavioural solutions available to reduce the risk of overheating and measures that can mitigate the potential for overheating in UK homes. These solution include internal and external blinds and shutters.

Key Findings

“Reducing unnecessary heat can be achieved through limiting heat gains, for example, by reducing the amount of:

  • Heat from the sun entering the building (solar radiation);
  • Internal heat gains such as from the unnecessary use of electrical equipment (and by switching to energy efficient alternatives) or by limiting gains from other sources such as hot water distribution pipes;
  • Warmer outside air entering the building.”

Further Detail

The use of internal or external solar shading is an effective way to control solar transmission through glazing. Internal shading intercepts solar radiation preventing it from directly heating internal structures and surfaces in a room and avoiding discomfort and glare of direct sunlight on occupants. However, heat is still convected by the internal shading so warming the room air.

External shading intercepts the short wave solar radiation and prevents it being transferred directly through the window glass to the internal space, being significantly more effective than internal shading.

When blinds are considered as part of a refurbishment the following considerations are relevant:

  • Internal blinds are particularly easy to incorporate into a refurbishment and can be retrofitted by an occupant
  • External blinds may require planning permission if they are considered as having a significant impact on visual appearance, and may require confirmation of structural suitability for wind and snow loads
  • Fixed blinds must offer a good compromise between daylight and solar shading, and must be appropriate for the elevation
  • Controllable blinds require maintenance, user adjustment if manually operated and acceptance/understanding of the control strategy if automated

Download the full report here: ZCH-Overheating Evidence Review

For all the resources from the Zero Carbon Hub on overheating in homes see here.

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ZCH Overheating in homes - The big icture

This report by the Zero Carbon Hub presents preliminary findings from a two-year project intended to investigate the extent to which the housing sector is gearing up address overheating risk and assess what changes to business processes and government frameworks needed to increase the resilience of the housing stock to extreme heat.

Key Findings

  • “Double-glazed windows with a low-e coating prevent heat from escaping. Houses with unshaded west-facing glass will suffer from higher levels of solar gain in the warmer part of the day.”
  • “Looking forward, whilst predicting the future incidence of overheating is not possible, an examination of drivers of change, climate change studies and modelling exercises all point towards the conclusion that overheating will become more common in the housing stock in England and Wales.”
  • “Overheating can damage residents’ health and wellbeing, increase social care costs, reduces economic activity, increase NHS costs and lower quality of life.”

Further Detail

It is clear that overheating is happening – potentially in up to 20% of the housing stock in England. In August 2003 England experienced unusually high temperatures which are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. There were over 2,000 deaths during the ten day heatwave in 2003, the worst affected were people over the age of 75 years.

It is extremely difficult to quantify the levels of overheating in homes over the long term, but if current trends continue, it is highly likely that overheating will become more common place. Overheating impacts include:

  • Heat-related morbidity and mortality are projected to rise, while heat-related deaths are expected to triple
  • Healthcare costs are estimated to rise significantly, representing a four-fold in mortality-related costs and a doubling in morbidity-related costs
  • Economic losses are expected as a result of work-days lost, accidents and reduced productivity due to sleep deprivation (or when working at home)
  • The energy efficiency and fuel poverty agendas could suffer set-backs if the sector begins to use more energy to cool homes as standard practice
  • Customer relations damage and reputational harm within commercial settings

The cause of overheating varies from building to building and is dependent on location, type of property, fabric characteristics including insulation of the building envelope and positioning of glazing, orientation and exposure to solar gain, occupants and their behaviour and ventilation strategies which can be impacted by external noise and security issues.

In many cases shading can be used as an effective measure to reduce the potential for overheating and is recommended in the “Cooling Hierarchy” which is planning guidance for the Greater London Authority.

The report concluded that overheating cannot yet be considered to be a managed risk for much of the sector. There are gaps and uncertainties in current frameworks which mean inherently risky designs and buildings can be approved. Secondly, despite evidence gaps, there is enough information and evidence about the causes, extent of, and solutions to overheating in homes to warrant taking careful yet concerted action to tackle the issue.

Download the report here: ZCH Overheating In Homes-The Big Picture

For all the resources from the Zero Carbon Hub on overheating in homes here.

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National Energy Foundation - Solar shading impact report

This report by the National Energy Foundation (NEF) was commissioned by the BBSA to explore the benefits of solar shading to homes, commercial and other buildings. The report is the most comprehensive ever conducted into the UK solar shading industry and includes recommendations for the industry and those who specify and use its products.

This report highlights the important energy saving, comfort and wellbeing benefits of correctly specified and operated solar shading. It also identifies that current building modelling, building regulations and building assessment schemes do not correctly recognise the benefits solar shading can bring.

BBSA NEF Solar Shading Impact Report – June 2016

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