Abstract
This study presents an analysis of the impacts of climate change on thermal comfort and energy performance of residential buildings in Ghana, in sub-Saharan Africa, and explores mitigation as well as adaptation strategies to improve buildings’ performance under climate change conditions. The performances of the buildings are analyzed for both recent and projected future climates for the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions of Ghana, using the IDA-ICE dynamic simulation software, with climate data from the Meteonorm global climate database. The results suggest that climate change will significantly influence energy performance and indoor comfort conditions of buildings in Ghana. However, effective building design strategies could significantly improve buildings’ energy and indoor climate performances under both current and future climate conditions. The simulations show that the cooling energy demand of the analyzed building in the Greater Accra region is 113.9 kWh/m2 for the recent climate, and this increases by 31% and 50% for the projected climates for 2030 and 2050, respectively. For the analyzed building in the Ashanti region, the cooling energy demand is 104.4 kWh/m2 for the recent climate, and this increases by 6% and 15% for the 2030 and 2050 climates, respectively. Furthermore, indoor climate and comfort deteriorate under the climate change conditions, in contrast to the recent conditions.
Highlights
Climate change is a complex environmental issue and presents significant risks to ecological, infrastructure, and economic systems [1,2]
This paper investigates the potential impacts of climate change on thermal performances of residential climates and discussed how peak and overall energy demands of buildings may change as a result of buildings in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions of Ghana, focusing on space cooling demand and a warming climate
This paper investigates the potential impacts of climate change on thermal performances of residential buildings in the Greater
Summary
Climate change is a complex environmental issue and presents significant risks to ecological, infrastructure, and economic systems [1,2]. Koranteng [16] simulated the performance of different categories of office buildings in the city of Kumasi in Ghana and explored the effectiveness of different measures to reduce cooling demand in the context of the current climate. Koranteng and Mahdavi [17] conducted simulation and field studies of energy and indoor thermal performances of office buildings in Kumasi, Ghana They found that cooling loads could be reduced by 20%–35% and associated CO2 emissions could be reduced by. Amos-Abanyie et al [14] investigated passive- and low-energy strategies to improve thermal comfort and thereby reduce cooling loads of buildings in different cities in Ghana. Different studies have been conducted to explore strategies to improve thermal and environmental performances of buildings under climate change conditions. The researcher suggested how climate change may affect housing in the city and outlined strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation
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