SR94 Implications of climate change for the construction sector: Houses (2000)

This is the first of a series of reports (SR95, SR96) prepared during research into the implications of climate change for the construction sector.

Major impacts on houses that have been quantified include:

• substantial reductions in space heating
• reductions in hot water heating
• increases in the number of days of summer overheating per year
• decreases of 1-4 times in a flooding return period and increases in building damage from flooding of up to 10 times in extreme cases.

Impacts that could not be quantified include:

• wind damage
• damage from tropical cyclones
• effects of changes in UV radiation.

The most important and urgent impacts requiring action to mitigate or adapt to the likely effects of climate change are flooding (which should be addressed on a regional basis) and house overheating, particularly in regions with already hot summers.