ABSTRACT
The UK Government’s 2018 National Adaptation Programme identified summertime overheating in care settings as a key risk and research priority for the health and social care system. This paper empirically investigates the risk of overheating during summer 2019 by monitoring indoor temperatures and thermal comfort in three purpose-built nursing care homes in London. The methodological approach combined continuous objective monitoring of indoor and outdoor temperatures with subjective thermal comfort surveys of residents and staff. Average indoor temperatures during the monitoring period in three care settings were measured as 25.8°C between 8am and 8pm, exceeding 30°C frequently, above the Public Health England’s recommended threshold of 26°C. Despite this, majority of residents found their thermal conditions ‘neutral’ even at high temperatures, while the responses of care staff were on the ‘warm/hot’ end of the thermal sensation scale. This difference was likely to be due to staff being more active than residents. Nevertheless, staff were willing to put up with uncomfortably hot temperatures if they felt it was in the residents’ best interest. Given that care settings combine residential and office functions, it is vital to provide adequate comfort to staff and residents through better management of the indoor environment.
