Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes
© Shade the UK
Shade the UK, in collaboration with the British Red Cross, are delighted to announce the publication of the Overheating Adaptation Guidance for Homes, which explores what homeowners and renters alike can do to their homes to prepare for rising temperatures.
A big thank you to our delivery partners, Love Design Studio, for their technical input and review.
Climate adaptation is an oft-mentioned concept in environmental debate, highlighting the growing need to update human systems and our built infrastructure to be more resilient as the climate warms. However, despite this level of attention, the actual level implementation of climate adaptive measures, particularly from government, does not meet the levels needed.
In the absence of the climate leadership we need from national decision makers, there are a number of organisations waiting to fill the void and support the public in protecting themselves in the face of unprecedented heat. One of these is the British Red Cross, the world-renowned humanitarian organisation formed with the principles of helping those in crisis. With the climate crisis taking centre-stage, the British Red Cross has started to turn its attention to how the effects of climate change will impact communities across the world.
Most recently, they set out to produce a suite of guidance and recommendations on how to beat the heat and keep safe during the summer months. For this, they sought expert help: Shade the UK.
Overheating guidance for UK homes - the first of its kind?
Earlier this year, the British Red Cross commissioned Shade the UK to support in its crucial work of developing the first climate adaptation guidance for homes. Specifically, our expert team worked to detail how both owned and rented properties can be adapted right now to help residents stay safe when the mercury soars. This was in an effort to supplement the existing guidance by the British Red Cross on how people in the UK can cope with extreme heat through behavioural changes.
The Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes provides 44 recommendations for how people can implement relatively simple heat-beating measures. These recommendations were split across 5 key areas where heat gains can be minimised:
External Shade - Referring to structures, either natural or human-made, placed outside a home to block or reduce the amount of direct sunlight entering through windows or other openings.
Internal Shade - Structures placed inside the home to block or reduce the amount of sunlight diffusing through a room.
Passive Cooling - Design strategies and techniques used to cool buildings naturally, without relying on mechanical systems, like air conditioning, which are energy intensive.
Ventilation - Measures to maximise the movement of air within a home to cool the indoor environment, removing warm and stale air and replacing it with cooler air.
Minimising Internal Gains - Reducing the heat gains caused by various sources within the home such as people, electrical appliances (TVs, laptops, ovens), lighting, and other equipment that produce heat when present or switched on.
One key piece of information provided in our guidance is how the individual user can tailor what they are looking for depending on their budget. Throughout, we have denoted the estimated price range of each household feature, ranging from cheaper solutions, such as stocking up on house plants or using a blanket to shade the window, to the more expensive, including installing a green roof or painting your home with white/reflective material.
Furthermore, the guidance provides permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary cooling measures to suit both homeowners and renters, or people who want to reap the benefits of the sun in the winter. For example, parasol in the garden provides effective shading in the summer but can easily be taken down in the winter. Conversely, installing external shutters is one of the most effective forms of external shading but difficult and expensive to remove.
Shade the UK works closely with those most impacted by heatwaves in the UK; thus, we recognise how the consequences of overheating can affect certain vulnerable groups more than others. Invariably, it is those of lower socioeconomic background that are not only disproportionately affected by heatwaves, but are also less able to adapt. We therefore wanted to empower these people to take ownership of their own safety, in a way that is amenable to their circumstances.
So, if you and your family find yourselves struggling during the height of summer and would like some tips for how to keep cool, we encourage you to download our guide at the link here. With 44 individual recommendations provided, we are sure you will be able to find a solution or combination of solutions that works for you.
Example adaptation measures
Background - why now?
Europe has been warming at twice the rate of the global average since the 1980s, with broad implications for the continent’s inhabitants and ecosystems alike. Despite the fact that we often like to consider ourselves as separate from our continental neighbours, the situation in the UK is no different. According to analysis from the London School of Economics, under a high emissions scenario with little or no adaptation, the number of overheating-related deaths in the UK is likely to surge by 166%, or approximately 4,266 deaths annually.
To put it blankly, the UK’s housing stock is poorly prepared to deal with hotter temperatures. For instance, one estimate shows that half of UK homes are at risk of overheating, a figure that is likely to rise to 90% under projected climate scenarios of 2ºC of warming. This figure again rises to the totality of homes under a 4ºC warming scenario. And, although some activity has been seen at the governmental level surrounding how best to adapt the country to climate change, namely with the issuing of the third National Adaptation Plan (NAP3) last year, this progress is lacklustre at best and does not go far enough in addressing the issue for existing buildings.
Therefore, we stress the importance for the general public to have access to adequate resources in preparation of increasing temperatures. The aim of the Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes is to help address the gap left behind by a lack of top-down leadership, which Shade the UK will work to build-upon in the future.
If you would like to learn more about our work at Shade the UK or commission our services, please contact us at info@shadetheuk.co.uk.
