Jaga Heating Products' Phil Marris recommends solutions for overheating in Green Deal homes.

It is hugely reassuring to see Professor Chris Goodier from Loughborough University's department of civil and building engineering going public and, more importantly, gaining attention for his very valid points on the potential for over-heating in homes insulated under the Green Deal scheme.

I applaud his initiative and at Jaga we have been addressing this exact topic with our customers and installer partners for some while now, as we share many of the same concerns.

As Professor Goodier says, in many well-insulated – let alone the extremely well-insulated – Green Deal standard homes, the heat builds up in the day during the summer and has nowhere to go at night leading to poor air quality. The uncomfortable heat build-up and energy waste through overheating during the heating season is likely to be even more pronounced if a highly inert heating system such as under-floor heating is installed, as with its high mass it cannot react to the sudden differences in ambient room temperature – caused by the sun coming out and streaming in through windows, for example.

I therefore believe the ideal solution is low-mass, energy-efficient heating combined with demand controlled ventilation (DCV). Low-mass heating gives precise temperature control at the desired room temperature to manage the occupants’ thermal comfort. Simultaneously, the DCV system monitors indoor air quality to ensure that ideal conditions are achieved 24 hours a day, by introducing exactly the right amount of cool or pre-warmed fresh air when required. After dark during the summer, it provides free nighttime cooling without the compromise to home security or the intrusion of road noise that opening a window can bring. All without the use of refrigerants or air-conditioning too!

In this way, you can heat and ventilate your home when you need to, to the extent that you need to, and you don’t have to waste money and energy overheating or over-ventilating.