There is considerable evidence to support the fact that overheating of buildings in the UK is becoming an increasing problem. In a recent survey (October 2015), on behalf of WSP:Parsons Brinckerhoff, 83% of the 1,005 London households surveyed stated that they had experienced at least one period of overheating during that summer. Part of the problem…
On very hot days, the power grids in the USA are under considerable strain to maintain power to all the country’s air conditioners. A new start-up in Chicago, NETenergy, works on the premise “why store electricity to generate cold air when you could store cold instead” (see http://midwestenergynews.com/2017/03/22/chicago-startups-thermal-battery-is-adaptive-solution-to-spikes-in-electricity-demand/). A chemical engineering professor at the University of…
In a recent CIBSE Journal (March 2017), it was stated that a perfect storm of technical, economic, and cultural factors is causing alarming levels of overheating in homes, according to speakers at a recent Edge debate. Professor Kevin Lomas FCIBSE, from Loughborough University, said the rise in overheating has been caused partly by the move towards airtight, insulated…
The Mayor of London is seeking to reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect in London and to encourage the design of places and spaces to avoid overheating and excessive heat generation, and to reduce overheating due to the impacts of climate change and the urban heat island effect on an area wide basis. …
Phase Change Materials(PCMs), or latent heat storage materials for building applications, are an emerging technology in the UK. They offer a solution for improving the thermal performance and comfort of low thermal mass buildings currently being constructed using modern materials and techniques and also when renovating existing building stock. Find out what PCMs are, how they…