heatwave

Heatwaves are extreme events that will become more frequent and intense with climate change. Maintaining a comfortable and healthy indoor environment becomes crucial during these periods. The occupants are not just passive individuals who undergo the evolution of their environment. They can act to ensure their thermal comfort, in particular by opening or closing windows in summer.

Due to climate change, Western Europe is experiencing a surge in cooling demand, leading to higher summer temperatures accompanied by longer and stronger heat waves, thereby intensifying the toll on our buildings. This signals the need for architects to design buildings that take advantage of passive technics to provide thermal comfort. In recent years, natural ventilation has become a widely used method for reducing energy consumption and expenses. However, the utilization of natural ventilation can be restricted due to heatwaves and the impacts of climate change.

A Personalized Environmental Control System (PECS) aims to condition the immediate surrounding of occupants. This approach is fundamentally different from typical HVAC systems, which aim to create uniform indoor environments, regardless of the occupant preferences. PECS has several advantages including allowing occupants to adjust their immediate surroundings according to their preferences, which could improve their satisfaction with the indoor environment, and may lead to higher productivity.

This paper investigates the relationship between indoor air quality (IAQ) and overheating in a temperate climate in Spain (Cfb attending to Koppen-Ggeiger classification), in dwellings located in residential buildings and without cooling systems.

It is still difficult to confirm from available data if global warming and climate changes have played a role in increasing heat-related injuries. However, it is certain that global warming can increase the frequency and intensity of heat waves, which can cause discomfort to the human body and, in the worst case, can lead to more heat illness casualties. Recent worldwide natural disasters, such as the Tohoku earthquake in Japan, flooding in Thailand, and the Pakistan heat wave show that climate change is truly a fact.