Given we spend up to 90% of our time indoors, the quality of these indoor climates can have a big impact on our health. Now a new study shows that not only physical health but also mental wellbeing are affected by indoor climates.
Measuring life satisfaction lost from building deficiencies can be done using a new but
recognised method – Well-being Valuation Analysis (WVA). This lets us assess the impact
of an indoor climate hazard, such as damp and mould, on a person’s overall well-being.
It combines two measurements: the subjective assessment of well-being and an economic
measurement of the impact the indoor climate hazard has on a person’s well-being.
In the above study published by Velux, you can see that cold has by far the highest impact on life satisfaction. A lack of heating has almost twice the impact on perceived well-being and life satisfaction as being separated from a partner. With 34 million Europeans unable to keep their homes warm, the potential impact on their well-being is significant.
People living in homes with all four indoor climate hazards are almost five times more likely
to feel unhappy compared to people who live in healthy homes
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