Melbourne’s apartments would fail to keep residents safe during a heatwave because they do not meet international health standards for indoor temperature levels, according to a new report.
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| Australia has no best practice standards for internal thermal comfort or overheating. |
Unlike France, Germany, the UK and the US, Australia has no best practice standards to protect the health of apartment residents. The six common Melbourne building models tested without cooling systems by the University of Melbourne were found to fail each of those country’s measures.
After a severe heatwave hit Europe in 2003, resulting in more than 14,000 deaths in France alone, the government introduced a “summer comfort” requirement to their building code. It stipulates that indoor rooms must not surpass 28 degrees for more than 3 per cent of the year without airconditioning. This, along with those standards of UK, Germany and America were what researchers compared their results to.
Read Alexandra Sponge’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Melbourne apartments unable to withstand heatwave conditions, fail to keep residents safe.”
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