Heating and Cooling Loads in High Performance Construction Systems-Will Climate Change Alter Design Decisions?

Sajjadian, Seyed Masoud; Lewis, John; Sharples, Stephen

Abstract

Climate change and its consequences are of great concern. Buildings can be affected by climate change in different ways, such as changes in energy needs and thermal comfort. However, the challenge is to quantify and assess the uncertainties involved in future climate data as well as the relevant adoption strategies. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate potential energy consumption changes in high performance building construction systems in a changing climate. In this paper, current and future weather data of three time slices of 2020, 2050 and 2080 were used to simulate the performance of a simple building in Manchester and London using DesignBuilder software which employs Energy Plus as its calculation engine. Five of the most commonly used and high performance construction systems were examined in terms of energy consumption in this model and results are given. In general, this paper provides a useful methodology for simplification in design decision-making for current and future UK housing. It is observed that future climate scenarios do not have major effects in qualitative comparisons of construction systems.

Citation

Sajjadian, S. M., Lewis, J., & Sharples, S. (2015, May). Heating and Cooling Loads in High Performance Construction Systems-Will Climate Change Alter Design Decisions?. Presented at International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction 2015, Chicago, Illinois, USA

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction 2015
• Start Date: May 10, 2015
• End Date: May 13, 2015
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 14, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 19, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 20, 2020
• Print ISSN: 1877-7058
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 118
• Pages: 498-506
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.467
• Keywords: Climate Change, Energy Consumption, Construcion Systems, UK
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2702625