The architects and the residents are in charge of the indoor temperature

Reduced energy consumption is an important strategy for climate change mitigation. Buildings, worldwide, accounts for 40 % of the primary energy use and 24 % of greenhouse gas emissions. There are studies and publications indicating that problems with high indoor temperature during summer are increasing in residential buildings designed as passive houses and low-energy buildings. The objective of this study is to investigate and quantify the effect of different measures that may reduce the risk of high indoor temperature for dwellings in summer. The result may serve as guidelines for architects and consultants in early design stages. This study examined the effect of different measures that may be applied to reduce the indoor temperature in dwellings in summer by simulations using IDA ICE 4.5. Hence, the results should only be used for residential buildings. The simulations show that for residential buildings the duration of high indoor temperature increases when taking the step from the standard concept to the low-energy concept, regardless of investigated option. However the increase in duration is low compared to decreases of high indoor temperature, possible to reach by different airing strategies or different measures to reduce the solar insolation.