Chances are, you’ve made your way to this page because you spend a significant amount of time in one of the UK’s many overheating buildings and its got you hot under the collar! Whether it be a home or place of work, buildings in the UK are increasingly susceptible to the effects of our rapidly warming climate.

So what exactly is the cause of this sweaty problem?

• To this day and historically, UK homebuilders, dictated by the Building Regulations, have placed significant emphasis on heat retention, with little or no attention paid to the provision of ventilation. However, with climate models now illustrating a sharp trajectory in average temperatures, overheating is now becoming a rapidly growing problem, particularly in UK buildings, designed to withstand only cooler conditions.

• Those of us living in cities, particularly London, are also having to content with the urban heat island effect, with temperatures up to 3⁰C warmer than the surrounding countryside.

• Those people living (or working) in either heavily insulated new build apartments or protected listed buildings are particularly at risk, having very few ways of cooling down, with options to provide mechanical cooling such as conventional air conditioning prohibited by the local planning body or building freeholder on the basis of these systems being either an eye sore, a noise nuisance, or in all likelihood, both! There are also strict rules in place to prevent damage to building exteriors, i.e. the mounting of exterior components, again, prohibitive if you’d like to install a conventional cooling system.

• Having such restrictions placed upon you, particularly in the case of homeowners, can be incredibly frustrating, particularly if opening windows is your means of “cooling” down, with the opening of windows potentially exposing your household to both noise and pollution.