Interactions of the Variation in Environmental Conditions Due to Climate Change and the Possibility of Obtaining a Low-Carbon Building Stock

A special issue of Climate (ISSN 2225-1154).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 July 2022) | Viewed by 9030

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Building Construction II, University of Seville, 41012 Seville, Spain
Interests: climate change; buildings; energy consumption; greenhouse gas emissions; thermal comfort; nearly zero-energy buildings
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change will generate unfavourable living conditions. To reduce this impact, the achievement of a low carbon economy in different sectors is required. In the case of buildings, there should be a transition from existing buildings to almost zero energy consumption buildings. However, obtaining nearly zero energy buildings can vary depending on the climatic conditions of the building. In this regard, a relationship between energy consumption, the evolution of the climate and the users’ thermal comfort will establish appropriate strategies for a low-carbon building stock.

The objective of this Special Issue is to analyse the importance of climate in the adoption of nearly zero energy buildings. The climatic analyses based on the adaptive capacity of users and the design requirements of buildings will adapt better the building stock. Likewise, the analyses carried out with climate change scenarios will reveal the expected evolution throughout the 21st century.

Dr. David Bienvenido-Huertas
Dr. Carlos Rubio-Bellido
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • climate change
  • buildings
  • energy consumption
  • greenhouse gases emissions
  • thermal comfort
  • nearly zero energy buildings

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 5047 KiB  
Article
Cooling Energy Use Reduction in Residential Buildings in Egypt Accounting for Global Warming Effects
by Mohammad Abdollah Fadel Abdollah, Rossano Scoccia, Giulia Filippini and Mario Motta
Climate 2021, 9(3), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9030045 - 10 Mar 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4580
Abstract
Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for almost 50% of the total electricity consumption in Egypt. This percentage is expected to increase due to the global warming effect. This work deals with the cooling energy use reduction strategies for residential buildings compatible with [...] Read more.
Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for almost 50% of the total electricity consumption in Egypt. This percentage is expected to increase due to the global warming effect. This work deals with the cooling energy use reduction strategies for residential buildings compatible with the Egyptian market accounting for the global warming effects. A study in the Egyptian market was done to explore the best available technologies in the Egyptian market. A series of dynamic simulations were executed in each city to optimize the building envelope using the best available technologies to reduce the cooling needs. Financial, energetic and environmental factors were taken into consideration, and comparative analysis was done to assess the best alternatives. The double wall with air gap and insulation on the outside was found to be the best alternative in all the cities. Moreover, simple measures to further reduce the cooling energy need were explored, such as the usage of more efficient lighting and night ventilation. This work led to an average reduction of 40% in the cooling energy needs and CO2 emissions across the three cities, with a maximum discounted payback period down to 6.3 years. Future weather files adapted to climate change were generated, and the selected passive strategies were tested to assess the validity of such strategies in the future. The cooling energy needs are expected to increase by 39%, while the peak cooling loads are also expected to increase by 23% by 2080, rendering the current installed HVAC systems undersized. Full article
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20 pages, 9376 KiB  
Article
Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios
by Dongsu Kim, Heejin Cho, Pedro J. Mago, Jongho Yoon and Hyomun Lee
Climate 2021, 9(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9010017 - 19 Jan 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3570
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis to foresee renewable design requirement changes of net- zero carbon buildings (NZCBs) under different scenarios of potential future climate scenarios in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. A climate change model is developed in this study using the [...] Read more.
This paper presents an analysis to foresee renewable design requirement changes of net- zero carbon buildings (NZCBs) under different scenarios of potential future climate scenarios in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. A climate change model is developed in this study using the Gaussian random distribution method with monthly temperature changes over the whole Northeast and Midwest regions, which are predicted based on a high greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenario (i.e., the representative concentration pathways (RCP) 8.5). To reflect the adoption of NZCBs potential in future, this study also considers two representative future climate scenarios in the 2050s and 2080s of climate change years in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. An office prototype building model integrates with an on-site photovoltaics (PV) power generation system to evaluate NZCB performance under the climate change scenarios with an assumption of a net-metering electricity purchase agreement. Appropriate capacities of the on-site PV system needed to reach NZCB balances are determined based on the building energy consumption impacted by the simulated climate scenarios. Results from this study demonstrated the emission by electricity consumption increases as moving toward the future scenarios of up to about 25 tons of CO2-eq (i.e., about 14% of the total CO2-eq produced by the electricity energy source) and the PV installation capacity to offset the emission account for the electricity consumption increases significantly up to about 40 kWp (i.e., up to more than 10% of total PV installation capacities) as the different climate scenarios are applied. It is concluded that the cooling energy consumption of office building models would significantly impact GHG emission as future climate scenarios are considered. Consequently, designers of NZCBs should consider high performance cooling energy systems in their designs to reduce the renewable energy generation system capacity to achieve net-zero carbon emission goals. Full article
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