VENT-AXIA HIGHLIGHTS OVERHEATING CHALLENGE

With the UK having experienced four heatwaves so far this year, Vent-Axia has sponsored a new white paper exploring the growing challenge of overheating in UK buildings.

The report, Solutions for Mitigating Overheating in Residential and Commercial Buildings, examines how architects are responding to rising temperatures and tighter regulations when designing newbuild properties. It also highlights the increasingly important role ventilation can play as part of a wider overheating mitigation strategy.

With more than 2,800 excess deaths estimated during the May and June 2026 heatwaves, overheating in UK homes has become a significant public health concern.

The white paper found that three-quarters of respondents are actively considering climate-responsive strategies that go beyond minimum regulatory requirements when designing buildings. However, managing overheating remains a challenge.

As new homes become increasingly thermally efficient in order to reduce carbon emissions and support the UK’s Net-Zero 2050 target, the risk of overheating is also rising. Some 77% of respondents believed that medium- or high-rise residential buildings designed to Part L 2021 are at risk of overheating, while 68% identified volume housebuilding as another area of concern.

Approved Document O of the Building Regulations 2021 prioritises passive measures when addressing overheating. However, the findings suggest that effective mechanical ventilation is becoming an increasingly important part of the overall strategy, particularly where passive design alone is unable to remove sufficient excess heat.

Some 69% of respondents said Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) is the ventilation approach they use most frequently. In addition, almost six in 10 respondents, 59%, believe the Future Homes Standard will increase demand for intelligent ventilation systems that can automatically respond to changes in indoor and outdoor temperatures.

Vent-Axia’s latest range of MVHR units, the award-winning Lo-Carbon Sentinel Econiq, delivers coolth or heat recovery efficiencies of up to 93%. It also features intelligent automatic 100% summer bypass functionality, helping to provide free cooling.

Where an MVHR summer bypass alone is not sufficient to address overheating, specifiers can also consider MVHR systems incorporating integrated DX cooling modules, such as Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon Sentinel Econiq Cool-Flow.