London's urban heat island: Impact on current and future energy consumption in office buildings

M Kolokotroni,X Ren,M Davies,A Mavrogianni

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.12.019

M Kolokotroni, X Ren + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.12.019

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a computational study on the energy consumption and related CO2 emissions for heating and cooling of an office building within the Urban Heat Island of London, currently and in the future. The study developed twenty weather files in an East-West axis through London; the weather files were constructed according to future climate change scenario for 2050 suitable for the UK which have been modified to represent specific locations within the London UHI based on measurements and predictions from a program developed for this purpose (LSSAT). The study simulated an office with typical construction, heat gains and operational patterns with an advanced thermal simulation program (IESVE). The predictions confirm that heating load decreases, cooling load and overheating hours increase as the office location moves from rural to urban sites and from present to future years. It is shown that internal heat gains are an important factor affecting energy performance and that night cooling using natural ventilation will have a beneficial effect at rural and city locations. As overheating will increase in the future, more buildings will use cooling; it is shown that this might lead to a five-fold increase of CO2 emission for city centre offices in London in 2050. The paper presents detailed results of the typical office placed on the East-West axis of the city, arguing the necessity to consider using weather files based on climate projections and urban heat island for the design of current buildings to safeguard their efficiency in the future.

Highlights

IntroductionCommonly referred to as the ‘Urban Heat Island’ phenomenon (UHI), is a well-established effect
Urban warming, commonly referred to as the ‘Urban Heat Island’ phenomenon (UHI), is a well-established effect
This is an unfair comparison because many office buildings in the UK are not cooled at present but because of increased overheating in the future, cooling will be provided

Summary

Introduction

Commonly referred to as the ‘Urban Heat Island’ phenomenon (UHI), is a well-established effect. The magnitude of the UHI has been studied mostly in terms of the temperature differences between rural and urban locations. There are many studies on the quantification of UHI in large cities and reviews on research in Europe and other areas have been published. UHI studies conducted in London indicate that urban population could be affected severely in terms of energy consumption and health, especially in summer if the current urbanisation trend continues [1,2]. A model for predicting UHI temperature within London has been proposed [6]. This model will be used to generate

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