Homes in the UK are mostly built for retaining heat, not keeping it out. To adapt to climate change, we need much smarter ways to keep buildings cool
“planting deciduous trees in front of south-facing windows that provide free shading in the summer that conveniently disappears in winter”.to make a million roofs “cool”, and something similar might be needed for the UK. In such countries, though, instead of just painting everything white, initiatives might involve using roofing and wall materials that aren’t white, but have a higher albedo, or ability to reflect light, says Lane.
The final big ticket is ventilation to take advantage of the UK’s naturally windy climate, says Wang. That can range from something as rudimentary as the sort of sash windows seen in many Victorian homes, to more sophisticated systems of vents, ducts and fans. Retrofitting ventilation systems may be costly and impractical for some existing homes, however.This is where there’s a huge opportunity.
Steps to avoid overheating in the UK could include orienting buildings to minimise solar gain, ensuring there aren’t too many windows on the south side of the home bringing in the sun’s energy at the hottest times, and increasing the thermal mass of buildings. That means the sort of heavy, thick-walled buildings you might have seen in southern Europe, where the walls and structure absorb the heat and leave the interior cool.
Rethinking windows will be one of the largest challenges, given their popularity for bringing in natural light. “The big problem is a lot of glazing,” says Wang. Lane says “pretty views” may have to be sacrificed in some cases so that most of the glazing is on the north side of homes instead, for example.“We also need to pick up other factors, how we design towns and cities using more trees and water to help keep that sort of urban [heat] amplification effect as low as possible,” says Millar.
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