Dealing with Extreme Heat: Intelligent Approaches for Improved Building Performance and Occupant Thermal Comfort

Dear Colleagues,

Extreme heat, particularly in urban areas, is a serious issue with dire effects on buildings, building systems, and building occupants. We know, for instance, that extreme heat increases energy use for space cooling, reduces the efficacy of HVAC systems, and decreases the thermal satisfaction of building occupants. All this transforms into (i) increased overall building energy use, which has a direct economic and environmental impact, (ii) suboptimal performance of building systems, which in itself has a plethora of sub-effects, such as heightened maintenance requirements, and (iii) multi-faceted issues related to occupant wellbeing, including reduced productivity and sickness in very extreme cases. Such issues will only worsen under future changing climates and rapid urbanization. Consequently, intelligent methods for managing extreme heat under the changing climate are critically important to ensure the (i) efficiency and sustainability of our buildings, such as assisting buildings in how they effectively and passively respond to very high temperatures; (ii) understanding the behavior of building systems and improving their efficiency under extreme temperatures, including optimizing the performance of such systems with minimal energy use; and (iii) developing effective rationale for designing conducive thermal environments for building occupants, for example, understanding occupant behavior under extreme heat conditions and subsequently controlling indoor environments to optimize occupant thermal comfort while minimizing energy usage.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to explore recent approaches in heat management for sustainable buildings and occupant comfort. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• smart building materials
• cool roofs, green roofs, and walls
• intelligent controls for solar insolation and ventilation
• climate-responsive dynamic facades and their control
• intelligent controls of HVAC systems
• digital twins for indoor thermal environment management
• simulation and modeling of extreme heat in buildings
• smart energy management systems in buildings
• heat governance and policy frameworks

Dr. Jack Ngarambe
Prof. Dr. Baojie He
Guest Editors

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