Giorgos Petrou

University College London | UCL · Bartlett School of Environment Energy and Resources

Anthropogenic climate change is projected to increase ambient temperatures, and the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme heat events worldwide. As a result, recent years have seen an increasing policy and research focus on the potential adverse effects of warm and hot weather on human thermal comfort, wellbeing, morbidity and mortality. Cer...

This chapter provides an overview of factors affecting heat-related morbidity and mortality in the Greater London Area. Evidence from past heatwave periods indicates that London’s Urban Heat Island effect contributes substantially to heat-related mortality rates. During a warm period in 2006, the proportion of heat deaths attributable to this effec...

Giorgos Petrou and colleagues argue for systematic large scale monitoring of indoor air to avoid unintended harms to health from home energy efficiency programmes

Global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings while also improving their environmental resilience have intensified. These efforts are often supported by building stock models which can inform policymakers on the impact of policies on energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and the indoor environment. The input values of such...

Building modelling is a valuable tool in the widespread efforts to decarbonise the built environment. To ensure modelling robustness, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques are often used. Such techniques commonly require model input distributions to be defined. This paper describes a novel approach, within the built environment, for ident...

The warming climate causes adverse effects on thermal comfort and health, especially for vulnerable older adults. This study assesses the current and future risk of summertime overheating in London’s care homes and explores the potential of passive ventilation on reducing these risks. Analysis is based on temperature monitoring of two care settings...

We explore methodological issues core to the cost-benefit evaluation of building adaptations designed to protect against heat risks to residents of care homes in England in the context of the uncertainties relating to the loss of life expectancy in heat death. We used building physics modelling to quantify the impact of external window shading on i...

Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings is a priority for meeting energy consumption and CO2 emission targets in buildings. Building simulation tools play a crucial role in evaluating the performance of energy retrofit options. In this paper, a Bayesian calibration approach is applied to reduce the discrepancies between measured and s...

An analysis of overheating levels corresponding to building morphology yielded the modelling uncertainty due to the geometry and layout of two-bedroom flats in London, England. A new method is introduced, which collates information on various flat layouts in the current London housing stock. To ensure an unbiased sample was selected, dwellings were...

Climate change projections indicate that the world's most populated regions will experience more frequent, intense and longer-lasting heatwave periods over the coming decades. Such events are likely to result in widespread overheating in the built environment, with a consequential increase in heat-related morbidity and mortality. In order to warn t...

As the high temperatures experienced during the summer of 2018 may become commonplace by 2050, adaptation to higher indoor temperatures while minimising the need for mechanical cooling is required. A thorough understanding of the factors that influence indoor temperatures can enable the design of healthier and safer dwellings under a warming climat...

The accurate prediction of building indoor overheating risk is critical in order to mitigate its possible consequences on occupant health and wellbeing. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers issued Technical Memorandum 59 (TM59) with the aim of achieving consistency in the modelling processes followed for the prediction of overhe...

Building performance simulation tools commonly offer several algorithm options for most heat transfer processes being modelled. The impact of this choice on indoor overheating risk, assessed using the criteria described in the CIBSE Technical Memorandum 59, was quantified for a naturally ventilated dwelling archetype in two popular tools. By select...

Building performance simulation tools commonly offer several algorithm options for most heat transfer processes being modelled. The impact of this choice on indoor overheating risk, assessed using the criteria described in the CIBSE Technical Memorandum 59, was quantified for a naturally ventilated dwelling archetype in two popular tools. By select...

According to the 2016 Household Projections report, England’s housing stock could reach 28 million households by 2039 with approximately one fifth being new constructions. A significant proportion of these newly built dwellings may face a high risk of overheating as a result of the combined effects of climate change and more stringent building ther...