Assessing overheating of the UK existing dwellings – A case study of replica Victorian end terrace house

This paper aims to investigate the likely thermal performance of a unique pre-1919 Victorian case study property by using both current and future projected weather data after a deep retrofit. The property is a re-construction within an environmental chamber using reclaimed materials designed to test housing retrofit solutions. Climate projections for Manchester from both UKCIP02 and UKCP09 programmes were used to assess the likely overheating in summer for this ‘Hard to Treat’ property judging by both single and adaptive comfort criteria from CIBSE Guide A and BS EN 15251. In the bedroom, where occupants have less ability to adapt, overheating could occur as early as 2020s; while in the living room, using the annually adaptive approach, overheating may not happen until 2080s. For high expectation occupants, however, short term overheating (weekly or monthly) can occur much earlier. The research highlights the discrepancies in predicting overheating using the two UK climate impact programmes; the inconsistencies of risk evaluation using different comfort criteria; and the differences between risk and severity of potential overheating.