Assessment of vulnerability to overheating at a regional scale through parametric simulation models and cooling degree-days analysis: The case of southern Spanish social housing stock
Rocío Escandón, Simone Ferrari, Teresa Blázquez, Rafael Suárez
Abstract
The urgent need to adapt urban environments to extreme weather conditions due to global warming has become a priority when allocating European funds. Current regional retrofitting plans focus on improving the well-being of the most vulnerable families by upgrading their homes. However, as there is no adequate characterization of the environmental behaviour of housing stock, local agents in charge of the management of social housing lack a procedure to identify the urban areas most urgently in need of retrofitting. This research aims to present a protocol for evaluating the vulnerability to overheating of social housing stock at a regional scale, as a prioritization decision support system. Parametric techniques for Building Stock Modelling were used in the development of 3000 models located in four climatic zones of southern Spain to assess their thermal behaviour considering adaptive comfort equations. Moreover, an index of vulnerability to overheating has been defined by normalizing comfort assessment through cooling degree-days. The comfort assessment outcome corresponds more closely with the analysis of cooling degree-days than with the Spanish regulations’ climatic zoning. According to the results, in the hottest climatic zone, occupants frequently endure discomfort up to 40% of the summertime, with hourly deviations of up to 7 °C above the indoor temperature comfort range. • Adaptive thermal comfort is evaluated in housing stock with vulnerable population. • Parametric simulation models are developed for housing stock in southern Spain. • Overheating assessment in four locations is normalized through cooling degree-days. • This housing stock frequently displays up to 40% of discomfort hours in summer.