With the UK set to record its warmest summer on
record, the Building Engineering Services Association
(BESA) is calling for urgent action to tackle the growing number of buildings
that overheat.
The Association says the rising number of deaths
linked to longer and more intense heatwaves makes this a serious building
safety issue with larger parts of the population now vulnerable to heat-related
health problems.
The Met Office confirmed that this summer is
already the sunniest and driest on record with temperatures also consistently
above average for the longest ever period – 79 days and counting. Researchers
from Imperial College London also estimated there were 263 excess deaths due to
heat in the capital during June alone.
“2022 might have seen more dramatic temperature
peaks but this year seems to mark a move into much longer and more relentless
periods of heat stress,” said BESA’s technical director Kevin Morrissey. “This
is significant because it suggests we are experiencing a new long-term weather
pattern which calls for a more concerted effort to adapt our built
environment.”
Research by the environmental campaign group
Friends of the Earth (FoE) has identified almost 5,000 neighbourhoods in
England that now regularly suffer from heat stress. These areas cover about a
third of the country and contain more than 1,000 hospitals, 10,000 children’s
nurseries, and a similar number of care homes meaning many of our most
vulnerable people are now at severe risk from the effects of excess heat.
FoE believes there could be more than 10,000
heat-related deaths annually in the UK by 2050 and is urging the government to
address its “climate adaption plans” to take heatwaves into account.
“There are multiple technical solutions available,
including both passive and mechanical cooling systems,” said Morrissey.
“However, to ensure these reach the most vulnerable in our society cooling must
now become a central part of the UK’s push to decarbonise the built
environment, which continues to focus primarily on how we heat buildings.
“Adapting the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) to support wider
adoption of heat pumps that provide cooling in summer as well as heating would
be a positive and easy first step.”
BESA also believes overheating should be part of
the wider building safety regime. It pointed out that the addition of
fire-resistant insulation was making many more homes liable to overheat, so
this needed to be offset by better ventilation and cooling.
“Overheating is the most overlooked building safety
issue,” said Morrissey. “Improving insulation to reduce heat loss and protect
occupants from fire is extremely important, but in many cases, this is
exacerbating growing health problems caused by poor indoor air quality (IAQ)
and condensation by raising temperature and humidity and reducing air change
rates.”
BESA, which manages the UK’s largest refrigeration
and air conditioning registration scheme REFCOM, said that the UK’s increasingly
intense summers were fuelling growth in demand for residential air
conditioning. While this is a positive development for human health and
comfort, it must be managed carefully to ensure installations met legal and
technical standards, the Association warned.
“There is always a risk with any growth market that
it attracts the wrong kind of commercial interest,” said Morrissey. “We are
seeing a surge in demand for heat pumps and for domestic cooling systems, but
these need to be properly designed and appropriate for each project.
“People need to be appropriately qualified and
registered to handle refrigerant gas and to install cooling equipment. There is
a ‘cowboy’ element out there who could do untold damage to this industry and
put both the environment and the public at risk of harm, if regulations are not
properly enforced.
“The Building Safety Act is beginning to make its
presence felt and is driving more responsible behaviour across the construction
sector by focusing heavily on competence and compliance. The role of cooling
needs to receive a similar level of scrutiny to ensure it can play its part in
keeping building occupants safe and healthy.”
