The Effect of Global Warming on the Indoor Environment : A Simulation Study on Single – Family Houses in the Stockholm Region

Sammanfattning: In this thesis, the main objective has been to simulate and evaluate the change between the indoor climate today and 2070, due to climate change. The model created was built by parts chosen based on solutions and material commonly used when building single-family houses in the Stockholm region in 2020. This has been done by evaluating statistics, literature, common practices, and building requirements. To simulate a representative house, a model was built in the software IDA ICE where present and future climates were inserted and the resulting indoor environment evaluated. The future outdoor climate has been constructed through predictions based on scenarios determined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The hypothesis was that single-family houses built in 2020 will not be habitable in 2070 due to the increased indoor temperatures in summer, and that changes can be done to combat this potential warming.The result of the simulations shows that the indoor environment was strongly dependent on the outdoor climate, building design, and technique. Meaning that changes to the building, regarding design, structure, material, and building services will result in a change in the indoor environment. Furthermore, the indoor temperatures of the model increased above acceptable levels regardless of future scenario. Several changes and additions to the model have, therefore, been tested to examine whether they reduce the maximum temperatures below the threshold sustainably.None of the individual changes reduced the temperatures below the acceptable levels for every single scenario and was considered a sustainable option at the same time. Some more sustainable modifications reduced the indoor temperatures below the threshold for the cooler scenarios, and some less sustainable modifications reduced the indoor temperatures below the threshold for all scenarios. A combination of more sustainable modifications was also tested, yielding a reduction in temperature beneath the threshold for all scenarios except for the two most extreme.The changed outdoor climate has a large effect on the simulated indoor environment. This could be considered as a strong indication that the actual indoor environment and thermal comfort of single-family houses will be affected as well. It is difficult to predict whether single-family houses in 2070 will be considered unhabitable since it is determined by a wide range of variables. The simulated indoor environment can, however, be improved by changing or adding parts to the model.