Overheating in Historic Buildings in the UK: An Exploratory Study of Overheating Risks, Building Performance, and Thermal Comfort

Abstract

A study reviewing overheating in historic buildings in the context of extant climate change. Due to global warming, more research is required when considering summertime thermal comfort in the UK, which is a more significant topic of conversation due to the heatwave in 2022. With a large demographic of the UK population residing in dwellings with historic value, this paper aimed to contribute findings that review their specific traits with respect to overheating. This was achieved by monitoring and analysing internal (and external environmental data) in three case studies in the south-east. Upon examination of the literature, many buildings in the UK are consistently subject to temperatures that exceed overheating. It was found that many properties of historic buildings lend themselves to summertime cooling such as higher thermal mass, better ventilation (without the use of mechanical or active systems), and less insulation. This, however, could come at the cost of winter thermal comfort. In all three case studies, the surveyed buildings passed the CIBRE criteria, but users still commented on being ‘too hot’. The high recorded RH levels in all properties, coupled with the inadequate overheating criteria, were deemed the cause. There are new regulations in place to minimise overheating in new buildings but no support for those that are already existing.