Estimation of climate change impact on energy consumption in a residential building in Kaunas, Lithuania, using HEED Software

On the Impact of Climate Change on Building Energy Consumptions: A Meta-Analysis

The body of literature on climate change impacts on building energy consumption is rising, driven by the urgency to implement adaptation measures. Nevertheless, the multitude of prediction methodologies, future scenarios, as well as climate zones investigated, results in a wide range of expected changes. For these reasons, the present review aims to map climate change impacts on building energy consumption from a quantitative perspective and to identify potential relationships between energy variation and a series of variables that could affect them, including heating and cooling degree-days (HDDs and CDDs), reference period, future time slices and IPCC emission scenarios, by means of statistical techniques. In addition, an overview of the main characteristics of the studies related to locations investigated, building types and methodological approaches are given. To sum up, global warming leads to: (i) decrease in heating consumptions; (ii) increase in cooling consumption; (iii) growth in total consumptions, with notable differences between climate zones. No strong correlation between the parameters was found, although a moderate linear correlation was identified between heating variation and HDDs, and total variation and HDDs. The great variability of the collected data demonstrates the importance of increasing specific impact studies, required to identify appropriate adaptation strategies.

Development of an Integrated Performance Design Platform for Residential Buildings Based on Climate Adaptability

Building energy waste has become one of the major challenges confronting the world today, so specifications and targets for building energy efficiency have been put forward in countries around the world in recent years. The schematic design stage matters a lot for building energy efficiency, while most architects nowadays are less likely to make energy efficiency design decisions in this stage due to the lack of necessary means and methods for analysis. An integrated multi-objective multivariate framework for optimization analysis is proposed for the schematic design stage in the paper. Here, the design parameters of the building morphology and the design parameters of the building envelope are integrated for analysis, and an integrated performance prediction model is established for low-rise and medium-rise residential buildings. Then, a comparison of the performance indicators of low-rise and medium-rise residential buildings under five typical urban climatic conditions is carried out, and the change patterns of the lighting environment, thermal environment, building energy demand, and life cycle cost of residential buildings in each city under different morphological parameters and design parameters of the building envelope are summarized. Specific analysis methods and practical tools are provided in the study for architectural design to ensure thermal comfort, lighting comfort, low energy consumption, and low life-cycle cost requirement, and this design method can inspire and guide the climate adaptation analysis and design process of low-rise and medium-rise residential buildings in China, improve architects’ perception of energy-saving design principles of low-rise and medium-rise residential buildings on the ontological level, as well as provide them with a method to follow and a case to follow in the actual design process.

Effects of Climate Change on Thermal Comfort and Energy Demand in a Single-Family House in Poland

In regions with temperate climates, the thermal insulation of buildings is increased to reduce the need for heating. It might significantly reduce human thermal comfort in the summer period. The problem can increase with global warming. The aim of the paper is to analyze the heating and cooling demand, as well as thermal comfort in a single-family house located in Poland for three climate scenarios (typical, real, and future weather data) and for two types of thermal insulation of external walls. In the study, two ways of cooling the building were taken into account: using split air conditioners and using fresh airflow provided through the opening of windows. The open area and the temperatures for opening windows have been optimized using a two-criteria function. The energy simulation was carried out in EnergyPlus 9.4 software. The multi-zone model was validated on the basis of the temperature measurement. The results showed that there will be a problem with ensuring thermal comfort in the future, especially in well-insulated buildings. The energy demand for cooling will be greater than the demand for heating. The use of passive cooling is a good solution for residential buildings in these regions, and the number of discomfort hours is small (max 5%).

Major European Stressors and Potential of Available Tools for Assessment of Urban and Buildings Resilience

Recent data show that there are intensifications of phenomena related to climate change, such as the increasing of heavy rains, more frequent and intense droughts connected with fires, and alterations of the local climatic conditions, including heat islands with consequent impacts on cities, districts, and buildings. Not only are natural hazards stressing Europe but also human-induced events like low-magnitude earthquakes as a direct cause of fracking or mining. This study aimed to investigate the significant stressors and summarize what impact is the most dangerous in each European country. There is a need to secure the operating conditions of urban infrastructures and to preserve a high-quality indoor environment of buildings. The main scope of this paper is to compare selected tools that evaluate the urban and building resilience and to assess their suitability, based on an analysis of natural and human-induced hazards in the European countries. The results represent a contribution to urban and architectural planning practice, and to the consistent implementation of measures to improve the resilience of the built environment by providing guidance as to which assessment tool is most suitable for each country.

How Climate Trends Impact on the Thermal Performance of a Typical Residential Building in Madrid

Based on the European energy directives, the building sector has to provide comfortable levels for occupants with minimum energy consumption as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper aims to compare the impact of climate change on the energy performance of residential buildings in order to derive potential design strategies. Different climate file inputs of Madrid have been used to quantify comparatively the thermal needs of two reference residential buildings located in this city. One of them represents buildings older than 40 years built according to the applicable Spanish regulations prior to 1979. The other refers to buildings erected in the last decade under more energy-restrictive constructive regulations. Three different climate databases of Madrid have been used to assess the impact of the evolution of the climate in recent years on the thermal demands of these two reference buildings. Two of them are typical meteorological years (TMY) derived from weather data measured before 2000. On the contrary, the third one is an experimental file representing the average values of the meteorological variables registered in Madrid during the last decade. Annual and monthly comparisons are done between the three climate databases assessing the climate changes. Compared to the TMYs databases, the experimental one records an average air temperature of 1.8 °C higher and an average value of relative humidity that is 9% lower.