Departments at Highest Risk: Top 10 Areas with Inadequate Cooling Systems Facing Heating Issues
In the face of climate change and increasingly hot summers, French homes are struggling to maintain comfortable living conditions, with nearly 80% of energy performance diagnostics (DPE) rated "insufficient" or "average" for summer comfort. According to Pierre-François Morin, director of the energy renovation activity at Hello Watt, the DPE tool needs to be more reliable and consistent with climate issues.
Météo France predicts a 2.7 degree increase in France's average annual temperature by 2050, and on July 1, 16 French departments were placed on red heatwave alert, with temperatures expected to reach 40 or 41 degrees. In the departments most threatened by heat, three out of four homes already have insufficient or average summer comfort indicators. By 2050, more than 80% of French homes risk becoming thermal ovens, according to Hello Watt.
To address this issue, Hello Watt suggests several solutions to improve summer comfort in French homes, especially in departments most threatened by heat. One such solution is the installation of air conditioning systems. Installing window or portable air conditioners with features like directional airflow, various fan speeds, and smart controls can provide effective cooling and comfort in hot weather.
Another solution is the use of indoor ceiling fans, which circulate air efficiently and help reduce the perceived temperature, improving comfort without high energy consumption.
In addition to these solutions, common recommendations for building adaptations include improving home insulation, shading windows, and using reflective materials to limit heat gain. For instance, insulation of walls and roofs with biosourced materials like wood wool and Nita-Cotton cotton wool can delay heat penetration into the wall by up to eight and five hours respectively. External shading on windows can reduce solar inputs by 85%, lowering the indoor temperature by 2 to 5°C.
A reversible air conditioning system, such as air-to-air heat pumps, can cool a dwelling in summer and heat it in winter, capturing external calories and restoring them in the form of heat or coolness. This system can be particularly effective in managing indoor temperatures and improving summer comfort amid increasing heat challenges in vulnerable French regions.
The Ministry of Housing is expected to propose ways to improve the consideration of summer heat in the DPE this summer, aiming to provide more accurate and reliable assessments of summer comfort in French homes. The reliability of the summer comfort indicator is "highly contested", according to Hello Watt, and a study published last year by Pouget Consultants and Ignes suggests that a revision of the summer indicator would place 90% of the French housing stock in the insufficient or average category.
With these solutions and potential improvements to the DPE, French homes can better prepare for the challenges of rising temperatures and ensure comfortable living conditions for their occupants.
- The banking industry could consider investing in renewable energy solutions for homes, as an increasing number of French homes risk becoming thermal ovens due to climate change.
- As the challenge of heatwaves becomes more pronounced, the environmental science and real-estate industries must work together to develop sustainable solutions for maintaining comfortable living conditions in French homes.
- The finance sector might play a crucial role in driving the industry's shift towards energy-efficient technology, such as the installation of air conditioning systems and the use of smart materials for insulation and shading.
- To effectively combat climate change and improve summer comfort in French homes, government initiatives like the proposed changes to the DPE should focus on enhancing the reliability and accuracy of summer comfort assessments, considering real-world climate data more extensively.
