Warmer weather

More heat waves will increase the need for cooling

Today, many are experiencing discomfort from hot summer days and nights. In the future, we must brace ourselves for more and longer-lasting heat waves during summer. For children, the elderly, the sick, and the weak, it can be life-threatening. We must therefore expect an increasing demand for cooling in, for example, day-care centres and nursing homes, homes for the elderly, sports facilities, and schools.

Cooling requires energy, so it is essential to find solutions that do not increase energy consumption in the building mass, as the Building Regulations also prescribe. For example, it could be systems with solar cells and cooling combined.

However, it is necessary to be aware that summer cooling can give rise to high relative humidity and, thus, the risk of mould growth, which is also the case when using natural ventilation.

Passive solutions, such as solar shading and awnings, can also help to meet many of the challenges of more extreme summer weather. Large window areas to the south and west, which may be desirable for a sustainable building, raise a problem in this connection that must be dealt with by, for example, establishing dynamic solar shading or foliage on windowpanes.

More hours of stronger sunshine may cause a more significant UV load and thus accelerate the breakdown of organic building materials such as wood and some types of plastic and paint.