Comparison and statistical analysis of long-term overheating indices applied on energy renovated dwellings in temperate climates

Stakeholders, researchers and designers apply different overheating metrics because they follow different comfort theories or comply with different regulations and standards. As a result, there is no common ground for generalization, intercomparison and final concordance of their conclusions. Correlation of indices would simplify the analysis being conducted during the design (optimization process) or operational (comfort assessment) phase of buildings. This research compares and statistically correlates results of seven widely used long-term overheating indices on four ‘free-running’ representative dwellings and characteristic climatic conditions of central Europe (Denmark, United Kingdom, Austria and France). Different renovation steps and passive cooling strategies were applied on these case studies creating 66 variants for comfort assessment. The analyses were conducted with the use of a dynamic energy performance engine and widely accepted calculation methods and statistical tools. The statistical analyses show that dynamic indices originate from the same adaptive comfort theory directly related with each other. In addition, it is possible to create general and widely applied relationships between static overheating indices independently of the case study and climatic condition.