Dutch home builders still too focused on staying warm in winter, not cooling in heat

Home builders in the Netherlands are still building according to the climate of a decade ago, focusing on homes that can catch and keep heat in the winter. But that leaves residents in homes that can’t cool down in the increasingly hot summers. And tenants, in particular, have few options to counter it, experts told NOS.

Newly built homes in the Netherlands are often already outdated, Andy van den Dobbelsteen, a professor of Climate Design and Sustainability at TU Delft, told the broadcaster. “Our regulations are always around 15 years behind, so we are actually always building for the climate of 15 years ago. Far too little account is taken of heat.”

The Netherlands should already be building more like the Mediterranean countries, with thicker walls and fewer large windows. Instead, newly constructed homes in the Netherlands still focus on good insulation and high windows to let in a lot of heat and light.

Research platform Investico calculated last year that around 10 million Dutch people live in homes that run the risk of becoming too hot. Even when it has long been comfortable outside again, residents still sweat in their living rooms and bedrooms.

“In construction in the Netherlands, you still see that too much attention is paid to the winter situation,” agreed Lisanne Corpel, a Climate-Proof City researcher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. “In the winter, you want your home to absorb heat, because then you don’t have to heat as much. But in the summer, you run into problems, and the heat can rise considerably.” The massive windows and limited ventilation options are part of the problem. “These architectural choices mean that residents are unintentionally exposed to increasing risks.” And it leaves individuals to deal with structural shortcomings, she said.

There are a few options for residents to help their homes stay cool in the summer, such as hanging up sun screens and installing ventilation systems. But these solutions are not available for tenants who aren’t allowed to make structural changes to their homes. And landlords only sporadically intervene. “There really is a difference between buyers and people who live in comparable rental properties,” Corpel said. Tenants have to go through their landlord or housing association, which sometimes do want to help, but don’t have the budget.

Persistent heat can affect people’s health, making them feel tired and disrupting their sleep, heat expert Carolina Pereira Marghidan of the Red Cross and the KNMI told NOS. “Cooling is especially important at night. If you don’t have enough time to cool down at night, the health problems pile up.”