Excess cold
Excess cold (HHSRS Category 1 hazard) refers to: ‘Households living in homes with a threat to health arising from sub-optimal indoor temperatures. The assessment is based on the most vulnerable group who, for this hazard, are those aged 65 years or more (the assessment does not require a person of this age to be an occupant). The EHS does not measure achieved temperatures in the home and therefore this hazard is based on dwellings with an energy efficiency rating of less than 35 based on the SAP 2001 methodology. Under the SAP 2009 methodology, used for the 2010- 2012 EHS reports, the comparable threshold was recalculated to be 35.79 and the latter was used in providing statistics for the HHSRS Category 1 hazard. Since 2013, the EHS Reports have used the SAP 2012 methodology and the comparable excess cold threshold has been recalculated to 33.52.’
Ref English Housing Survey, Profile and condition of the English housing stock, 2018-19, Published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in August 2020.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- BREEAM Thermal comfort.
- Cold stress.
- Fuel poverty.
- Heat Energy: The Nation’s Forgotten Crisis.
- Maximum and minimum workplace temperatures.
- Measuring Fuel Poverty.
- Temperature.
- The cold man of Europe 2015.
- The full cost of poor housing.
- The real cost of poor housing.
- The Warm Arm of the Law.
- Thermal comfort.
- Thermostat.
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