The upcoming summers are expected to see an increase in the intensity and duration of heat waves due to the effects of climate change. As a consequence, the thermal resilience of actual buildings might not be sufficient to keep comfortable conditions for their inhabitants. Cooling strategies to keep the houses fresh and cool will as -sume more and more important as the severity of these climatic events will intensify. Several simulations have been performed to compare how a selected case study apartment behaves with passive measures like natural ventilation and active measures, like mechanical ventilation and air conditioning. Two different types of be-haviours are discerned, depending on the commitment of the user and its willingness to take measures to counteract the building overheating. The effect of retrofitting is taken into account as well. The simulations use of historic data from the summer of 2018 and 2022 and future climate scenarios from the summer of 2030 and 2050. Results highlight how external overheating progressively degrades the thermal resilience of the building with ventilation scenarios, but how air conditioning is more appropriate to keep comfortable conditions inside the house. The behaviour is fundamental, as an aware user can significantly increase comfort in the case of natural ventilation and reduce energy consumption averagely by 15% in case of the air conditioning.
Borghero, L; Clèries, E; Péan, T; Ortiz, J; Salom, J
Comparing cooling strategies to assess thermal comfort resilience of residential buildings in Barcelona for present and future heatwaves
Building And Environment