Overheating & Social Housing
Climate Change Is Happening (If You Haven’t Heard Already)
The effects of climate change within the UK are already alarmingly present and are set to worsen over the coming decades.
A recent study published by the Journal of Climatic Change warned that the UK can expect increasingly frequent storms, floods and heatwaves, presenting a huge risk to human life.
Predictions based on models illustrating the effects of a global 4°C rise in average temperature show the UK could be expecting quadruple the number of extremely hot days per year compared to the current average.
Even taking predictions from a more optimistic model still show a 2°C rise, with the number of days per year spent in heatwave conditions doubling.
While it is obviously important that we work to reverse the damage we have done, it is equally important that we prepare for the scenarios being predicted and anticipate the needs and dangers to vulnerable people.
Social Housing, the Vulnerable & Overheating
Social housing is currently a resource in high demand in the UK, with 4.1 million homes owned by the government or housing associations in England and Wales. This figure is important to consider when assessing the risks of increased heat waves in the UK as those classed as ‘vulnerable’ disproportionately occupy social housing.
What we take to mean ‘vulnerable’ people are illustrated below.
Figure 1: Groups classified as ‘Vulnerable’
To exemplify this, 43% of social housing in the UK are occupied by just one person, which is representative of how reliant the retired population is on this support. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures within buildings can be lethal, with almost 700 hundred deaths reported to be resulting from the heatwave of summer 2018 and the elderly being most at risk (see our article on overheating and the elderly here). Therefore, it is imperative that social housing remain a safe temperature even throughout the intensifying summers.
However, over the past few years, it has become increasingly apparent that existing social housing is not designed to withstand current peak summertime temperatures, let alone future increases to temperature. It is now an area undergoing increasing scrutiny from research to expose the depth and breadth of the problem.
A study in 2015 measured the temperature in 122 social homes in central England using both static overheating criteria and adaptive comfort criteria. In other words, the study looked at how residents felt about the conditions in their home and considered their different vulnerabilities including the outdoor temperature. A significant proportion of the residencies investigated were reaching temperatures above recommended levels, but a far smaller proportion of the residents were actually reporting discomfort and concern about how hot their homes were. The lack of reporting is concerning as it illustrates people, especially the elderly, are not always aware of when they are in danger and will unlikely make active behavioural changes to mitigate any overheating issues.
Moreover, the study found that bedrooms were more likely to overheat than living rooms, with 40% of them measuring at over 26°C for more than 1% of occupied hours, causing dangers while sleeping. Additionally, 5% of living rooms were higher than 28°C for 1% of their occupied hours.
This was the first large-scale study to investigate overheating risk in UK residences of this kind – but shockingly - against current regulations all the properties were deemed liveable!
Retrofit: The Key to Adaptation
The housing stock in the UK is some of the oldest in the world and this is unlikely to change, so research into how to effectively retrofit homes to make temperatures more manageable is necessary.
In fact, existing buildings are predicted to make up 80% of housing stock in the UK by 2050, so they must be able to cope with the inevitable much higher temperatures and it is crucial to integrate cooling measures into buildings now to stay ahead.
A study looking at 46 newly retrofitted social houses in Exeter over the summer found that 10 of the 86 rooms were still overheating, whereby kitchens and bedrooms were at the highest risk. Another key finding was that the ventilation throughout the buildings was poor, which had the largest impact on older people as they were spending most of their time inside. Combining the research with future predictions, we can see how crucial it is that thermal comfort be a priority for retrofit planning. Accordingly, for new purpose-built social housing projects, it is important that passive cooling methods are fully incorporated from the very beginning and they include measures like outdoor green spaces, adequate ventilation and external shading.
For most existing social housing, considerable retrofit projects may be necessary to reduce overheating risks; but this will be difficult to perform when costs are trying to be kept low. However, there are some ways in which changes to the way buildings are formed can reduce overheating as well as long-term costs. For example, large communal heating system pipes may leak heat into other homes and contribute to overheating, whereas smaller, contained systems are cheaper to run. A further example is that many homes that regularly overheat are likely to suffer damage from mould and dampness in the colder seasons. As both problems can be caused by a lack of proper ventilation, improving this would stop the issue at the cause and therefore save money needed for repairs and redecorating in the long-term as well as reduce overheating risks.
Education, Education, Education!
A study looking into 25 social housing flats in Coventry over the course of three cooling seasons found that there was a significant risk of overheating in these homes, with two thirds being over recommended limits. An interesting find was that these instances of overheating in the summers varied considerably between flats which was mainly attributed to the differing behaviours of the occupants in response to changes in external weather. When looking further into adaptive thermal comfort, the risk of overheating for occupants that were considered vulnerable was greater than who were not, despite living in the same type of property.
The results provide evidence for pushing the importance of educational resources so that residents can take full advantage of the shading, ventilation and other cooling systems in place. It also indicates that social housing associations should pay attention to the needs of their tenants and provide vulnerable people living in their residences with additional attention and support in the placing and maintenance of their home.
Boosting green spaces is another easy change to make - trees and large plants can provide a natural form of shading along with many other benefits to the wellbeing of residents living nearby. Housing associations should also be educated of all the simple measures that can be taken to improve conditions within their residencies, such as ensuring windows can be sufficiently opened and ensuring they can be shaded from the sun by blinds or similar additions. They must also be able to impart this knowledge onto tenants so that they can gain their maximum benefit.
Could Social Housing Accelerate Our Mitigation Efforts?
While climate change is causing a significant problem for social housing, in recent years more innovative ideas are being developed to utilise social housing to reduce the UK’s impact on the global climate with the hopes of reducing the instances of extreme weather conditions.
The construction and use of buildings account for 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions, so improving the built environment’s footprint could improve future climatic impacts. Upgrades to social housing could play a key role in helping us reach net zero carbon, and many of these homes are in blocks which could all be upgraded at once.
A recently approved project with ambitious aims to reduce energy consumption in homes is the Homes as Power Stations project in Swansea. This will involve retrofitting thousands of homes in Southwest Wales with energy efficient and renewable technologies, including social housing, with goals to reduce fuel poverty and improve the well-being of residents.
Next Steps
Overall, to reduce future loss of life from dangerously high temperatures in buildings - there are many changes that must be made. Regulations on the cooling efficiency of buildings must factor in the projected hotter temperature, instead of relying on the cooler summers of the past. Most importantly, these changes must happen as soon as possible as the strain on their homes is only going to get worse each subsequent summer. The people occupying social housing are often some of the population’s most vulnerable, and considerably more care needs to be taken to ensure their health and well-being.