The relative importance of input weather data for indoor overheating risk assessment in dwellings

The risk of overheating in UK dwellings is predicted to increase due to anthropogenic climate change and local urban climate modification leading to an increased urban heat island effect. Dwelling geometry characteristics such as orientation, aspect, and glazing, and building fabric characteristics such as thermal mass and resistance can influence the risk of overheating. The majority of simulation-based studies have focused on identifying the importance of building characteristics on overheating risk using a small number of weather files, or focus solely on the impact of external temperatures rather than a full set of climatic variables. This study examines the overheating risk in London dwelling archetypes when simulated under different UK climates, both in the present and under 'hot future' conditions, with the objective of identifying whether the conclusions drawn from location-specific studies can be generically applied to different cities. Simulations were carried out using the dynamic thermal simulation tool EnergyPlus using 3456 dwelling variants and six different Design Summer Year (DSY) climate files from locations within the UK. In addition, a 2050 Medium Emissions scenario weather file was used to model a particularly hot summer in all locations. The results indicate that weather files can influence the ranking of relative overheating risk between dwelling types, with significant variations in the relative ranking between London, Scotland and the North of England, and the rest of England. These results show that studies examining the overheating risk across the UK need to consider the variability of building performance under regional weather conditions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.