Revisiting overheating indoors.

In recent years, an increasing amount of overheating issues in buildings has been reported. Despite available knowledge and recognition of the problem by research, in practice little attention has been paid to the problem. The aim of the paper is to identify contradictions, missing interconnections, communication deficits or barriers. Terminologies used, and time and dynamics in the context of overheating and heatwaves will be discussed. Planning pathways and their consequences on preparedness for overheating or heatwaves will be discussed subsequently. In the context of overheating as well for heatwaves, informing people about the human ability to acclimatise to seasonal changes and addressing acceptable healthy temperature ranges instead of comfort ranges could be supportive in relaxing people’s expectations towards indoor climate. Three areas should become a focus of future activities: a) enhancing adaptability in humans b) managing human expectation towards the indoor environment and c) enhancing adaptability of buildings. Time and dynamics in building performance, adaptation processes and mortality predictions are interrelated and will require more attention in future studies.

Full paper available on the conference' website http://windsorconference.com/proceedings/