Unintended consequences of sustainable architecture: Evaluating overheating risks in new dwellings

Governmental strategies to reduce heating demand from dwellings have led to a range of problems relating to ventilation and occupant comfort. In fact, growing evidence of uncomfortably warm homes has been appearing in UK consistently in the few last years. This paper discusses the overheating risk in four highly insulated homes in the UK where a mixed methods approach has been deployed to characterise areas of overheating risk, which have been found to occur with different degree of severity and different sources of risk, all related to design and occupant behaviour.