Natural ventilation: good practice in the UK - a pre-design check list to minimise summertime overheating risk.

In the UK's temperate maritime climate, the need to air-condition a non-domestic building outside city centres should be the exception rather than the rule. Nevertheless, the potential clients for new or refurbished buildings, whether tenants or owner occupiers, are concerned about whether a non-air-conditioned building can deliver comfortable and productive working conditions, particularly in summertime. To convince client decision makers (facilities managers, property directors, etc.) and their professional advisers (architects and engineers), that natural ventilation can deliver both low energy performance and high occupant satisfaction, a document has been written that draws together the most compelling evidence: the example of successful precedents. This paper elaborates the technical basis for a pre-design check list provided in the document as a preliminary means to quantify summertime overheating risk, and so to try to steer designs for natural ventilation in the right direction.