The Energy Consumption of Terraces in the Barcelona Public Space: Heating the Street

Carlos Alonso-Montolio,Helena Coch,Gloria Serra-Coch,Antonio Isalgue

doi:10.3390/su13020865

Carlos Alonso-Montolio, Helena Coch + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020865

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jan 16, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Abstract

Terraces, as outdoor extensions of food and beverage businesses located in the public realm, have very high potential to activate the streetscape, bring people together and improving urban experiences. Among the consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic are the recommendations of maximizing outdoor environments when conducting human interactions. Therefore, outdoor eating has dramatically increased throughout the world, with terraces becoming a radical urban change in many streetscapes. The urgency of the situation, and rapid implementation of these changes, has revealed some aspects of this phenomenon that should be considered when adapting the regulations to this new reality. However, the research on their functioning and impact is limited. Additionally, although energy consumption in the architectural and urban field is considered fundamental, research has rarely addressed small business outdoor spaces, placing the focus instead on residential heating or public lighting. This study focuses on the intersection of these two gaps by analyzing a set of terraces in Barcelona and estimating the power installed in their outdoor heating devices. The goal is to determine the potential energy consumed, contrast it with other values more commonly used when researching architectural energy consumption and point out the lack of sustainability of these approaches to providing comfort. The calculations show that the installed power in Barcelona terraces is significant and, when estimating potential consumption, it presents values higher that the average heating consumption of residential units in Spain. These results support two main conclusions: first, the relevance of addressing the means of providing comfort in outdoor urban spaces due to the high magnitude of their potential energy consumption; second, the importance of adapting those systems to outdoor conditions, understanding the needs of the occupants and the limitations of the environment in order to develop sustainable solutions that provide comfort without attempting to heat the air of the street.

Highlights

IntroductionThe Case of Barcelona with regard to jurisdictional claims in
Due environment to the low percentage heating devices, the energy analysis presented in the final discussion only considered gas field work consisted in collecting the data using the previously described spreadheating sheetThese in theterraces six mentioned and processing it occupy with Geographic
This study is centered on terraces of food and beverage businesses located in the public realm, with a particular focus on the energy use of heating devices installed during the winter months

Summary

Introduction

The Case of Barcelona with regard to jurisdictional claims in. There is a type of phenomenon in the urban public space that, often disregarded by urban planning professionals, is placed at the core of current political and social discussions. Terraces located in the public realm have the potential of highly influencing the dynamics and performance of cities and, are in need of further analysis and study. The term “terrace” is generally used to describe architectural outdoor extensions of indoor spaces. Private terraces in residential buildings extend the living area outdoors. We will focus on a particular case, using the word “terrace” to define the outdoor extension of food and beverage businesses, generally restaurants and cafes (Figure 1). We focus on those that make use of the public space to provide this extension [1]

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