A case study on the thermal comfort of social housing in Suffolk following an air source heat pump retrofit

This case study presents the analysis of thermal comfort in fifteen social housing properties across Suffolk following the refurbishment of electric storage heaters with an air source heat pump with wet radiators. Temperature and relative humidity were monitored at twenty minutes intervals between June 2012 to April 2013. The average temperatures during monitoring period ranged from 15.3 degrees to 23.8 degrees. While the average relative humidity ranged from 41% to 66.4%. The results presented in this case study show that the use of air source heat pumps to provide space heating and domestic hot water can be easily influenced by factors, such as the building fabric conditions, airtightness, installation and commissioning of equipment and human behavior to be able to deliver thermal comfort.