Insulation specialist Actis has responded to a Met Office report stating that the UK’s extreme weather conditions are ‘the new normal’, highlighting the importance of ensuring Britain’s homes can cope with both ends of the weather spectrum.
Actis cites research from Loughborough University’s Building Energy Research Group which looks at how the fabric of a building can help in the battle to ensure occupants remain cool during hot weather. Loughborough University’s senior lecturer in healthy buildings, Dr Ben Roberts, writing on academic news website The Conversation, said that various passive measures, including installing insulation, will help homes stay cool in the summer.
“Combined with new regulations for overheating which limit the sun’s heat entering through windows, high levels of insulation and airtightness can be a positive thing for our buildings all year round,” he said.
Overheating in British homes has become a growing threat to public safety, a real-time consequence of the ongoing climate crisis. Research from Resolution Foundation discovered that one in five homes in England are estimated to overheat during warmer months, with 36% of homes projected to be at high risk of overheating as average summer temperatures continue to climb. Unsurprisingly, the poorest households were those most at risk, with 54% of households in the poorest income bracket living in homes that are likely to become uncomfortably and potentially dangerously hot.
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Architectural designer and technical manager at Actis insulation, Harsha Mistry, says some forms of insulation can make homes unbearably hot during heatwaves, but others, such as Actis’ reflective insulation blankets, insulating vapour control layers and insulating breather membranes, including its two-in-one Eolis HC, can actually keep them cool as they reflect around 94% of infrared radiation.
“In the winter, insulation minimises the need for active heating by addressing thermal efficiency directly within the building’s structure – essentially a fabric-first approach. Similarly, during the summer, the reflective properties of Actis insulation deflect solar heat rather than transferring it indoors. This keeps the interior naturally cooler and significantly reduces the energy required for active cooling via air-conditioning,” she said.
Met Officescientists say the climate of the 20th century is a thing of the past, with the hottest day of the year in the south of England now typically 4.5C warmer than it was between 1961 and 1990.
The report confirmed that 2025 was the warmest year since records began in 1884 and projects that temperatures in the mid-forties could be reality for the UK by 2050 if global warming continues at its current pace.
Experts at Imperial College London, the Met Office and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say more than 2,700 people may have died from heat-related causes in England and Wales during the May and June heatwaves.
