The Nottingham energy, health and housing study: reducing relative humidity, dust mites and asthma

This paper describes the Nottingham energy, health and housing study, a project where seven Nottingham City Council households subject to either fuel poverty or heat poverty have been refurbished to improve the internal environmental conditions and therefore the health of the occupants. The main aim was to provide improvements in ventilation, insulation, draughtproofing and heating control in the dwellings. An intervention study was carried out in the seven dwellings where temperature, relative humidity, health, dust mite numbers and ventilation were measured before the introduction of a range of heating, ventilation and insulation improvements. These were then monitored again a year later. The results of the study indicate that with a limited budget, significant improvements have been realized in the comfort levels of the occupants and in their health. Modelling of the environmental conditions and energy consumption in each dwelling has been carried out using the steady-state Condensation Targeter II model. Comparisons between the model predictions and the measured data show that Condensation Targeter II can be used as an effective tool for selecting the most appropriate design modifications for an individual dwelling and can assess the impact that these modifications will have on the energy efficiency of the dwelling and the health of the occupants.