Kevin J. Lomas

• BSc PhD DSc
• Professor at Loughborough University

Overheating occurs when the indoor thermal environment presents conditions in excess of those acceptable for human thermal comfort or those that may adversely affect human health. Summertime overheating of homes without active cooling has been demonstrated across diverse locations, such as the UK, USA, and New Zealand. Climate change is predicted t...

Designing effective passive cooling interventions for dwellings in low-income communities exposed to tropical climates is vital to ensure occupant health and comfort in a warming climate. More knowledge is needed, however, on which interventions would be culturally acceptable, affordable, and effective in reducing high indoor temperatures. Four exp...

The aim of this study was to understand the self-rated sleep quality of occupants in UK homes and their association with bedroom condition. An online survey questionnaire was designed to understand the thermal comfort while sleeping, sleep quality and the physiological factors that affect sleep. The survey was administered for a period of two month...

Adequate sleep is crucial to human health and well-being and elevated night-time temperatures can degrade sleep quality. European countries with temperate climates use temperature thresholds between 25°C and 28°C to identify homes that are overheated. The current UK bedroom threshold of 26°C, is based on one small study, which is now over 45 years...

Dynamic thermal models are used to predict indoor temperatures for overheating building regulation compliance (Part O) assessments. The models must therefore be reliable in their predictions, but previous work has shown differences between measured and modelled temperatures. The present study uses bespoke datasets measured in test houses to examine...

Occupant exposure to airborne pathogens in buildings can be reduced by a variety of means, including adequate provision of outdoor air by ventilation. This is particularly important in buildings, such as hospitals, which may house a higher number of infected individuals relative to the wider population. In tropical Africa, however, there is evidenc...

China’s Hot Summer and Cold Winter zone, with a 550 million population, accounts for 45% of China’s building energy consumption; as such, building retrofits could offer substantial energy savings. This paper presents results from a dynamic thermal modeling study of a typical urban multistory residential building under three types of air conditionin...

Enhanced guidance on the processes by which indoor temperatures are predicted by dynamic thermal models will improve the reliability of overheating risk assessments. This is especially important now that dynamic thermal models are used to test compliance with overheating regulations. A new empirical dataset has been created to validate and calibrat...

The IMPROVE project (IMproving the PRedictions of OVErheating) comprised a measurement phase and a modelling phase. The measurement phase is the subject of this dataset and was carried out from April 2021 to September 2021 (inclusive). Two matched pair houses, one synthetically occupied and one unoccupied were instrumented with sensors to measure:...

This report details work carried out by the Technical Assessment Contractor for the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) during Phase 2 of the Technical Evaluation of SMETER technologies (TEST) Project under the Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETER) Innovation Programme. The Technical Assessment Contractor,...

Summertime overheating in dwellings in temperate climates is widespread. Overheating in bedrooms disrupts sleep, degrading health and wellbeing, and can be life-threatening. Air-conditioning homes is a solution, but is expensive and adds load onto electricity networks. An alternative is to provide safe havens, a cool retreat for sleeping when the m...

Purpose Accurate values for infiltration rate are important to reliably estimate heat losses from buildings. Infiltration rate is rarely measured directly, and instead is usually estimated using algorithms or data from fan pressurisation tests. However, there is growing evidence that the commonly used methods for estimating infiltration rate are in...

Domestic zonal heating controls enable hydronic systems to heat rooms to different temperatures at different times. The first credible evidence known to the authors, of the in-use energy savings of such controls, is reported. The results and research methods are globally relevant. The energy demands and room temperatures in 68, gas-heated, owner-oc...

Summertime overheating in both new and existing dwellings is widespread and increasing, even in temperate climates. There is an urgent need to solve the problem. Flats (apartments) and small dwellings, especially those in cities, are particularly at risk. Elderly and vulnerable people are particularly affected. This briefing note presents current k...

The summer 2018 saw temperatures far above the long-time average in the Northern Hemisphere. It was England's hottest ever summer, with temperatures typical of those expected of the 2050s. In the largest and most comprehensive study of overheating in English homes to date, overheating in 750 homes was assessed through both monitoring and questionna...

Within the UK non-domestic building stock, offices built between 1940-1980, are especially in need of retrofit, they can suffer from high energy consumption and thermal discomfort. Many post-war offices will still be in use throughout the first half of this century. This paper evaluates retrofit strategies for post-war office buildings accounting f...

Heating homes using gas boilers is incompatible with the UK’s target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. One solution is to shift to heat pumps (HPs) supplied from decarbonised power plant, but this could place an unmanageable burden on the electricity supply network. National heat demand profiles depend on the heating patterns adopted by...

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...

A novel application of semi-parametric Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) was developed to forecast elevated indoor temperatures. GAM models were compared to AutoRegressive models with eXogenous inputs (ARX) and validated against monitored data from two case study dwellings, located near to Loughborough in the UK, during the 2013 heatwave. Input va...

This paper describes a new method to swiftly model the dynamics of heating energy demand and indoor air temperatures of houses and housing stocks. The Reduced data Energy Model (RdDEM) provides a cost-effective alternative to steady-state modelling by enhancing the input dataset from the Reduced data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP) – the meth...

A Domestic Operational Rating (DOR) scheme is presented for assessing the energy performance of occupied dwellings. The DOR is complementary to the method used to generate the asset rating of UK dwellings: the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). The DOR is transparent, easy to calculate, based on readily available information, producible from dail...

This dataset can be downloaded from: https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro.8094575

Summertime overheating in UK dwellings is seen as a risk to occupants' health and well-being. Dynamic thermal simulation programs are widely used to assess the overheating risk in new homes, but how accurate are the predictions? Results from two different dynamic thermal simulation programs used by four different experienced modellers are compared...

Around 80% of domestic heat demand in Great Britain (GB) is supplied by natural gas, but continuing to heat dwellings in this way is unlikely to be compatible with national emission reduction targets. Electrical heating using heat pumps is expected to play a significant role in future space heating and hot water provision. The assessment of future...

A novel application combining semi-parametric Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) with logistic GAMs was developed to forecast indoor temperatures and window opening states during prolonged heatwaves. GAM models were compared to AutoRegressive models with eXogenous inputs (ARX) and validated against monitored data from two case study dwellings, loca...

Summertime overheating is increasingly prevalent in both new and existing UK dwellings. High internal temperatures can be dangerous to vulnerable occupants, disrupt sleep and cause thermal discomfort. The mitigation or exacerbation of overheating through simple occupant interventions like window opening and blind use needs better understanding if h...

Claims about the benefits of heating controls are often biased, unsubstantiated, misleading, or incorrect. This paper presents a systematic and critical international review of the evidence for the energy saving, cost effectiveness and usability of heating controls. The focus is domestic, low-pressure hot water heating systems in temperate climates...

A model and an assessment framework have been developed to support the transition of residential districts from passive energy consumers to active prosumers linked within community energy systems (CES). Three districts form the case studies on which an assumed scenario was applied and examined for the financial, environmental and energy efficiency...

Building retrofit plays an important role in reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions whilst increasing occupant thermal comfort. This study used DesignBuilder to predict the energy saved by retrofitting a typical flat in Chongqing, a city in the hot summer, cold winter region of China. To increase the reliability of predictions, th...

Early prediction of impending high temperatures in buildings could play a vital role in reducing heat-related morbidity and mortality. A recursive, AutoRegressive time series model using eXogenous inputs (ARX) and a rolling forecasting origin has been developed to provide reliable short-term forecasts of the internal temperatures in dwellings durin...

The UK National Health Service (NHS) is continually under pressure to provide more bed spaces and to do this within a tight budget. Therefore, NHS Trusts may turn to modular buildings, which promise faster construction and low energy demands helping the NHS meet its stringent energy targets. However, there is growing evidence that thermally lightwe...

Summertime overheating is increasingly prevalent in both new and existing UK dwellings. High internal temperatures can be dangerous to vulnerable occupants, disrupt sleep and cause thermal discomfort. The mitigation or exacerbation of overheating through simple occupant interventions like window opening and blind use needs better understanding if h...

New-build homes and bungalows are particularly at risk of overheating during hot UK summers. Bungalows are a dwelling type favoured by the elderly who are more vulnerable to the negative health impacts of overheating. Whilst modelling studies have identified overheating risk, monitored data is lacking and limited information about the adaptive oppo...

The large price drop in solar PV and electrical batteries offer new opportunities for optimizing district energy plants, but requires a more complex daily operation of these plants. Solar PV production used locally by a ground source heat pump (GSHP) with a minimal use of the national grid is one opportunity. Even if, for the benefit of the GSHP, t...

As UK homes are insulated and draught proofed in an attempt to reduce wintertime heating demand they become more airtight. Any reduction in infiltration could have a detrimental effect on indoor air quality. Controllable background ventilation provided by trickle vents is one method of maintaining indoor air quality. A 1930s semi-detached 3-bedroo...

Overheating risk in dwellings is often predicted using modelling techniques based on assumptions of heat gains, heat losses and heat storage. However, a simpler method is to use empirical data to predict internal temperatures in dwellings based on external climate data. The aim of this research is to use classical time series descriptive analysis a...

This paper provides powerful evidence empirically demonstrating for the first time the reliability of the co-heating test. The test is widely used throughout Europe to measure the total heat transfer through the fabric of buildings and to calculate the heat-transfer coefficient (HTC; units W/K). A reliable test is essential to address the ‘performa...

There is growing evidence of an increased incidence of overheating during warm weather in buildings without air- conditioning, especially homes in temperate climates where the retention of winter heat has been the principal focus of thermal design. Overheating has been particularly notable in new homes and in existing stocks. Excess heat affects th...

Government, local authority and industry initiatives to improve the energy efficiency of housing stocks are central to national and international commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. To be effective, initiatives need to target homes which, given their location, size, fuel type and occupancy, use more energy than expected. This paper illu...

There is currently a lack of data recording the carbon and emissions inventory at household level. This paper presents a multi-disciplinary, bottom-up approach for estimation and analysis of the carbon emissions, and the organic carbon (OC) stored in gardens, using a sample of 575 households across a UK city. The annual emission of carbon dioxide e...

This paper provides an analysis of the appliance ownership and use factors contributing to high electrical energy demand in UK homes. The data were collected during a large-scale, city-wide survey, carried out in Leicester, UK, in 2009–2010. Annual electricity consumption and appliance ownership and use were established for 183 dwellings and an odd...

Opening windows is a common method for controlling air temperature, moisture, air quality and odours in dwellings. Opening a window in winter will increase the heat loss from a house, the additional heat loss will depend on the size of the window opening and the length of time for which the window is open. However, window opening behaviour is unpre...

This paper presents an analysis of internal air temperatures measured hourly in the living rooms of 10 domestic buildings in the city of Leicester, UK. Time series analysis is used to develop empirical models of room temperatures in rooms that are neither mechanically heated nor cooled, during the summertime period of July and August 2009. The mode...

When designing and managing integrated renewable energy technologies at a community level, prediction of hourly thermal demand is essential. Dynamic thermal modelling, using deterministic occupancy profiles, has been widely used to predict the high-resolution temporal thermal demand of individual buildings. Only in recent years has this approach st...

This paper investigates the interaction between supermarket heating, ventilation and air conditioning and refrigeration systems through simulation in EnergyPlus. This interaction has been studied by modelling a generic UK supermarket. The impact on the sum of HVAC and refrigeration energy consumption due to changes in a range of operating condition...

Post-war office buildings have been modelled using EnergyPlus to determine the effect on thermal comfort of a range of energy- saving refurbishment measures. The native buildings were found to be thermally uncomfortable in the winter due to low operative temperatures arising from their concrete construction and single glazing. When the building env...

This paper presents an analysis of internal air temperatures measured hourly in the living rooms of 230 domestic buildings in the city of Leicester, UK. Time series analysis is used to identify the mechanisms that shape room temperatures, during the summertime period of July and August, in rooms that are neither mechanically heated nor cooled, and...

Opening windows is a common method for controlling air temperature, moisture, air quality and odours in dwellings. Opening a window in winter will increase the heat loss from a house, the additional heat loss will depend on the size of the window opening and the length of time for which the window is open. However, window opening behaviour is unpre...

Corrigendum for 'A medium-rise 1970s maternity hospital in the east of England: Resilience and adaptation to climate change' by C Alan Short, Giridharan Renganathan and Kevin J Lomas. Building Services Engineering Research & Technology 36(2): 247-274. DOI: 10.1177/0143624414567544 © The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers 2015 Repr...

This paper provides an analysis of the socio-economic and dwelling factors contributing to high electrical energy demand in UK domestic buildings. The socio-economic, dwelling and electricity consumption data were collected during a large-scale, city-wide survey, carried out in Leicester, UK, in 2009-2010. Annual electrical energy demand was estima...

A matched pair of 1930s semi-detached houses, in original condition and un-refurbished in terms of energy efficiency, were employed to measure the energy savings that might result from the use of zonal space heating control (ZC). The houses were adjoined and had the same synthetic, yet realistic, occupancy schedule, the same new central heating sys...

This paper aims to investigate the socio-economic, dwelling and appliance related factors that have significant or non-significant effects on domestic electricity consumption. To achieve this aim, a comprehensive literature review of international research investigating these factors was undertaken. Although papers examining the factors affecting e...

The late 1970s design for the Rosie Maternity Hospital on the Addenbrookes campus in Cambridge is a recurring type across the UK National Health Service, a framed three-storey courtyard configuration in brick masonry. It was selected as a case study project for the ‘Design and Delivery of Robust Hospitals in a Changing Climate’ project, pursuing th...

Understanding heating patterns in UK homes is crucial for energy policy formulation, the design of new controls and heating systems, and for accurate stock modelling. Metrics to describe heating patterns are proposed along with methods for calculating them from measured room temperatures. The patterns of heating in 249 dwellings in Leicester, UK ar...

Housing stock models have long been employed to estimate the baseline energy demand of the existing housing stock, as well as to predict the effectiveness of applying different retrofit measures and renewable technologies on reducing the energy demand and corresponding CO 2 emissions. This research aims to develop a dynamic housing stock model to s...

Distributed lag models (DLMs) to predict future internal temperatures have been developed using the hourly weather data and the internal temperatures recorded in eleven spaces on two UK National Health Service (NHS) hospital sites. The ward spaces were in five buildings of very different type and age. In all the DLMs, the best prediction of interna...

There is a substantial need to reduce the amount of energy used to heat domestic properties within the UK. Nearly a third (29%) of the UK gas and electricity consumption is used in homes, of which 80% is for space heating and hot water provision [1]. The DEFACTO project (Digital Energy Feedback And Control Technology Optimisation) is a five year EP...

This paper investigates the potential for employing dynamic thermal modelling rather than simplified programs as part of an energy assessment procedure. Prototype software, FE+, is introduced which runs batch-simulations. At each simulation run, FE+ creates an input file from data collected by surveyors conducting assessments for the UK government’...

Nucleus-type Hospital in Glenfield comprises connected cruciform blocks with numerous small courtyards between. The hospital has mechanical ventilation and perimeter heating. The wards have a hybrid ventilation strategy with a low rate of mechanical ventilation. Ventilation through windows is the main source of summer time cooling. This paper inves...

This paper presents one of the first national scale studies of summertime temperatures in English dwellings. Living room and bedroom temperatures were recorded in 207 homes across the England during the cool summer of 2007. Data was also collected by face-to-face household interviews. Fourteen homes (7%) were observed to be heated for part or all o...

Internal summertime temperatures measured in 268 homes in Leicester, UK, are reported. The hourly data were collected from living rooms and bedrooms during the summer of 2009. Some household interviews were conducted. The sample of homes was statistically representative of the socio-technical characteristics of the city's housing stock. The data pr...

In this paper, panel methods are applied in new and innovative ways to predict daily mean internal temperature demand across a heterogeneous domestic building stock over time. This research not only exploits a rich new dataset but presents new methodological insights and offers important linkages for connecting bottom-up building stock models to hu...

Models of UK houses have been created at nine levels of detail, to study the impacts on the computed energy consumption. The results will inform an evaluation of alternative methods of large-scale dynamic stock modelling. The levels reflect the shortage of suitable data at one end of the scale and the effort involved in implementing a detailed mode...

In view of the warming climate, there is increasing concern about the likelihood of overheating inside UK buildings that are not mechanically cooled. A number of studies are examining this matter, of which the DeDeRHECC project is one. The recent availability of the UKCP09 future climate data projections has acted as a stimulus to such work. This p...

The National Health Service (NHS) Estate in England includes 18.83 Mm2 of acute hospital accommodation, distributed across 330 sites. Vulnerability to overheating is clear with 15,000 excess deaths occurring nationally during the July 2003 heatwave. The installation of mechanical cooling in existing hospitals appears to be the inevitable recommenda...

The National Health Service (NHS) Estate in England comprises more than 30 Mm ² with 18.83 Mm ² of acute hospital accommodation on 330 sites. There is concern about the resilience of these buildings in a changing climate, informed by the experience of recent heatwaves. However, the widespread installation of air conditioning would disrupt the achie...

Using panel methods, a model for predicting daily mean internal temperature demand across a heterogeneous domestic building stock is developed. The model offers an important link that connects building stock models to human behaviour. It represents the first time a panel model has been used to estimate the dynamics of internal temperature demand fr...

Summertime temperatures in UK homes are a matter of increasing concern, particularly because of global warming and an increased incidence of heat waves. Refurbishment adds to uncertainty about the resilience of UK homes to climate change. This paper examines internal summertime temperatures in the living and bedrooms of 282 homes in the UK city of...

The 2008 Climate Change Act has committed the UK government to reduce CO 2 emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. To meet this target a significant reduction in energy consumption will be required from domestic dwellings and in particular space heating which accounts for more than 50% of the energy used in the UK housing stock. The UK government...

The energy impact of extensions, defined as the percentage increase in total household energy consumption caused by an extension, has been investigated and quantified. This has been achieved through a two-step process. Firstly, a set of typical extension sizes and prevalence was defined through a survey using publicly available aerial imagery and G...

This report, commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), set out to review, collate and add to data to provide an evidence base to domestic appliance usage, and to look for evidence of trends affecting future consumption in the home, to support their policy development in the areas of behaviour change and product design. The...

Results are presented from a monitoring study of the performance of a sample of UK domestic PV systems. Five-minute average climatic and performance data was recorded for 27 PV systems at two sites for up to 2 years of operation. On average, the annual energy losses due to faults were 3.6% (Site A, first year of operation), 6.6% (Site A, second yea...

Crucial empirical data (currently absent in building energy models) on central heating demand temperatures and durations are presented. These data are derived from the first national survey of energy use in English homes and includes monitored temperatures in living rooms, central heating settings reported by participants, along with building, tech...

Closed access. This editorial was published in the journal, Building Research and Information [© Taylor & Francis (Routledge) and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210903350937

The Community Domestic Energy Model (CDEM) has been developed to explore potential routes to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the model is used to predict the CO2 emissions of the existing English housing stock. The average dwelling CO2 emissions are estimated as 5827 kgCO2 per year, of which space heating accounts for 53%, water heating f...

A high proportion of the energy consumption of cities is linked to buildings. In the UK for example it is estimated that energy use in buildings is responsible for around 29% of all energy consumption compared with 37% for transport (Fig. 6.1).

In urban environments, perhaps more so than in any other setting, people and nature must coexist in close, and sometimes uncomfortable, proximity. With half of the world’s human population living in cities and a continued decline of biodiversity in the wider landscape, urban nature plays an increasingly important role in creating cities that are bo...

Buildings and their related activities are responsible for a large portion of the energy consumed in China. It is therefore worthwhile to investigate methods for improving the energy efficiency of buildings. This paper describes a low energy building design in Hangzhou, south China. A hybrid ventilation system which employs both natural and mechani...

A new building for a university near Chicago, Illinois, US, utilizes a hybrid advanced natural ventilation strategy to condition a deep-plan library. The design and construction are described, but the paper focuses on the post-construction, pre-occupancy commissioning trials undertaken to test both the active and passive environmental control syste...

Naturally ventilated buildings have a key role to play mitigating climate change. The predicted indoor temperatures in spaces with simple single-sided natural ventilation (SNV) are compared with those in spaces conditioned using a form of edge in, edge out advanced natural ventilation (ANV) for various UK locations. A criterion, for use in conjunct...

This article is restricted access. The article was published in the journal, Building Research & Information [© Taylor and Francis]. It is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210802645874 Many nations have set tough targets for reducing the CO2 emissions of their building stocks. The Building Research & Information special issue titled ‘Cl...

This article is restricted access. The article was published in the journal, Building Research & Information [© Taylor and Francis]. It is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210802607841 There is an appreciable literature exploring environmental design strategies for low-energy, naturally ventilated and cooled buildings, but less is recor...

Advanced natural ventilation (ANV), often characterised by the use of dedicated ventilation stacks, shafts and other architecture features such as atria, light wells, has gained popularity for natural ventilation design in recent decades. In this research, a prototype ANV system is proposed, and the likely thermal performance in a range of UK clima...

Photovoltaic systems can reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the consumption of electricity in dwellings. One key issue that affects both the economic case for home installation and the integration with the mains electricity grid is the match between the instantaneous production and demand for power. This initial study considers a sample of 10...

This paper presents the development of an energy and carbon model of existing dwellings and its application to urban housing. The model is used to predict the energy use and CO2 emissions of the housing stock of the city of Leicester, UK, and to estimate the effect of energy efficiency interventions. It is shown that a high level of energy efficien...

Results are presented from a monitoring study of the electricity consumption of a sample of UK domestic buildings. Five-minutely average whole house power consumption was recorded for 72 dwellings at five sites over a 2-year monitoring period. The mean annual electricity consumption for the households increased significantly by 4.5% (t = 1.9; p < 0...