Thermal Comfort

By working closely with design teams we can undertake an assessment to predict the indoor temperatures and recommend measures to prevent overheating in current and future climates and comply with industry requirements.

The drive towards delivering low energy buildings in recent years has provided designers with another challenge – achieving thermal comfort levels in an unpredictable environment due to climate change.

Draughty buildings along with energy demanding mechanical cooling and ventilation systems meant that overheating in many buildings could previously have been avoided, but not anymore, as recent revisions to recognised industry guidance demand a more onerous approach to designing buildings that don’t overheat.

We use advanced modelling techniques within the IES Virtual Environment software to predict indoor thermal comfort levels against the following industry guidance:

• CIBSE TM52 (predominantly non-domestic)
• CIBSE TM59 (Residential)
• Building Bulletin 101 (Educational buildings)
• BREEAM Hea 04 Thermal Comfort

Where spaces are identified to be at risk of overheating we will recommend preventative measures and assess their impact until a compliant solution is achieved.

Passive preventative measures (e.g. solar shading, natural ventilation etc.) will always be considered before a mechanical solution, to avoid increasing energy usage, CO2 emissions and costs to your building. Regardless, we can then assess the impact of any measures on the overall building performance to ensure it still complies with your project energy and CO2 emissions targets.

Indoor air quality can also be improved by limiting the indoor carbon dioxide levels that can typically build up due to respiration from occupants. We can calculate predicted CO2 concentrations against CIBSE and Building Bulletin 101 recommendations.