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Survey shows overheating concern

Two in three professionals working in housing sustainability who responded to a survey have said they are concerned about overheating of homes.

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Consultancy Sustainable Homes has published 75 responses to a survey about overheating. The open survey, which was completed by staff from a variety of organisations including social landlords, revealed 65% of respondents think there is concern in their organisation about overheating in residential properties generally.

Nearly half (47%) reported being ‘extremely or very concerned’, and 18% were ‘fairly concerned’. One in three (34%) said they were ‘not concerned’.

A total of 15% of responses were from housing associations and 6% were from councils (around 11 and five respectively). The other responses were from architects, private developers, private landlords, builders and companies providing retrofit services. It showed 37% of respondents do not have a method of accessing risk of overheating.

A number of sustainability experts have warned in recent months that lots of insulation fitted to new or recently retrofitted properties, combined with warmer temperatures due to climate change, is leading to more overheating in residential properties.  

Richard Lupo, senior sustainability consultant at Sustainable Homes, said landlords should ensure there is shading on the outside of properties and should be designed in such a way to allow windows to open on two different sides of a property to enable cooling air to circulate.

Last November Paul Cinglio, sustainability and asset strategist at housing association First Wessex warned the sector it needs to take the issue of overheating  ‘very seriously.’  He said First Wessex had to install air conditioning to alleviate overheating in one home after a baby had health problems as a result.

The Sustainable Homes survey also showed  23% of respondents are not confident that homes not experiencing overheating will be at risk of overheating in the future.

Nearly a third (31%) of respondents said they don’t provide advice to occupants of homes on how they can keep temperatures comfortable and 54% said they do not specify over-heating related requirements in contracts.


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