Impacts of climate change on mechanical ventilative cooling in high-rise buildings

Abstract

Mechanical ventilation systems have great potential to provide cooling in high-rise buildings and reduces cooling energy consumption, i.e. mechanical ventilative cooling (MVC). However, the energy performance of MVC highly depends on weather conditions. In the previous studies, the energy performance of MVC usually was investigated under the typical or historical weather conditions. Considering that weather conditions will change due to global warming, it is necessary to assess the influences of climate change on the energy performance of MVC. This study uses the morphing method to predict the future weather conditions and a hybrid model to simulate the energy performance of MVC. The hybrid model combines the machine learning model built by multilayer perceptron and energy models. With a case study building in Montreal, the results show that the amount of energy saving of MVC will increase slightly due to climate change. This study contributes to the application of MVC systems in high-rise buildings.