Why apartments fail the heat stress test

If a heat wave hit Melbourne and the power blacked out, most of the city's apartment buildings would simply bake as air conditioners failed and indoor temperatures exceeded international health standards, according to a new  study  by the University of Melbourne. Researchers from the Melbourne School of Design have now called on Australia to adopt building standards to protect occupants against heat stress. Academics from the MSD modelled six common apartment designs in Melbourne and all six failed standards for new buildings set in France, the UK, Germany and the US. There are no health standards to ensure against heat stress in the Building Code of Australia. Lead researcher and construction scientist Mr Chris Jensen said the results are a wake up call, particularly as scientists are predicting longer and more frequent heat waves. 'The research highlights to the public that heat stress inside apartments is a real issue and that we need to do more to control for this, not only in new buildings, but also for existing buildings,' Mr Jensen says. The researchers modelled how six common Melbourne apartment designs could cope with excessively high temperatures by testing them against the heatwaves that hit Melbourne in January and February 2009, including the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7.