Elsevier

Energy and Buildings

Volume 38, Issue 3, March 2006, Pages 245-252
Energy and Buildings

Determinants of winter indoor temperatures in low income households in England

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2005.06.006Get rights and content

Abstract

The objective of this study is to quantify the extent to which variation in heating season indoor temperatures is explained by dwelling and household characteristics and increased by energy efficiency improvements in low income households. A survey of dwellings in the Warm Front home energy efficiency scheme was carried out in five urban areas of England. Half-hourly living room and main bedroom temperatures were recorded for 2–4 weeks over two winters. For each dwelling, regression of indoor on outdoor temperature was used to obtain estimates of daytime living room and night time bedroom temperatures under standardized conditions (outdoor temperature of 5 °C). The results indicate that the median standardized daytime living room temperature was 19.1 °C and the median standardized night time bedroom temperature 17.1 °C. Temperatures were influenced by property characteristics, including its age, construction and thermal efficiency and also by the household number of people and the age of the head of household. Dwellings that received both heating and insulation measures through the Warm Front scheme had daytime living room temperatures 1.6 °C higher than pre-intervention dwellings, night time bedroom temperatures were 2.8 °C higher. Warm Front energy efficiency improvements lead to substantial improvements of both living room and bedroom temperatures which are likely to have benefits in terms of thermal comfort and well-being.

Introduction

The issue of fuel poverty [1] and the large burden of winter and cold-related deaths in the UK [2], [3] has focused attention on winter indoor temperatures and the ill-health effects of exposure to cold through inadequate home heating. To help deal with this problem, the UK government initiated a fuel poverty review and launched, in 2000, a new Home Energy Efficiency Scheme for England, now known as Warm Front [4]. The Scheme, which is targeted at low income households, provides grants for the improvement of home insulation and heating to tackle fuel poverty and to improve winter indoor temperatures ‘to ensure that the most vulnerable households need no longer risk ill-health due to a cold home’.

In 2001, a national evaluation of the health impacts of the Warm Front scheme was initiated, part of which entailed the collection of detailed temperature data from a subset of 1600 dwellings. These measurements were made in some dwellings which were awaiting Warm Front improvements and in others that had recently received improvements to the heating system or home insulation or both. In this paper, we present a first analysis of these temperature measurements and the factors that influence the adequacy of home heating during periods of cold.

Section snippets

Methods

The study included dwellings undergoing Warm Front improvements over the winters of 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 in five urban areas: Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Southampton. Detailed measurements of temperature and humidity were made by placing data loggers in a subset of 1604 study dwellings. We used Gemini TinyTag data loggers, which were placed away from direct sources of heat and light on a sideboard or shelf at around waist height (approximately 1 m from the ground). A

Results

The median standardized daytime living room temperature was 19.1 °C (from 5th to 95th centile range: 13.5–23.0 °C) and the median standardized night time bedroom temperature 17.1 °C (5th–95th centile range: 12.1–21.8 °C).

Discussion

The indoor temperature measurements analysed for this paper represent one of the most comprehensive sets of dwelling-related temperature data for English homes. They provide a valuable insight into the heating characteristics of households on low income. Most previous studies [11], [12], [13], [14] have focused on spot measurements and have not corrected for external temperatures during the monitored period, whereas our continuous monitoring with half-hourly measurements and the method of

Acknowledgements

This study was undertaken as part of the national evaluation of the Warm Front Scheme (England's home energy efficiency scheme). It was supported by the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Welsh Assembly Government under contract with the Energy Saving Trust (EST, Contract Number M47). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding departments. Paul Wilkinson is supported by a Public Health Career Scientist

References (17)

  • D.R.G. Hunt et al.

    A national field survey of house temperatures

    Building and Environment

    (1982)
  • Department of Trade and Industry, UK Fuel Poverty Strategy, London, DTI, 2001,...
  • M. Curwen

    Excess winter mortality: a British phenomenon?

    Health Trends

    (1990/91)
  • P. Wilkinson et al.

    Cold comfort: the social and environmental determinants of excess winter death in England, 1986–1996

    (2001)
  • Warm Front Study Group, Health impacts of England's Home Energy Efficiency scheme (Warm Front),...
  • L. Shorrock et al.

    Domestic energy fact file 2003 (BR 457)

    (2003)
  • S.H. Hong et al.

    The impact of energy efficient refurbishment on the air tightness in English dwellings

  • BRECSU (on behalf of DEFRA), The Government's Standard Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of Dwellings, Version...
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

1

Tel.: +44 20 7927 2444; fax: +44 20 7580 4524.

View full text