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Impact of climate change on buildings.

Author(s) : CRAWLEY D. B.

Summary

Significant scientific work to evaluate the potential climatic changes due to human activities causing greenhouse gas release continues to expand our understanding of this complex issue. One portion of this research is the analysis of the impact of buildings on climate. Currently, the most widely accepted climate change scenarios predict increases of between 1 and 3.5 °C for the global annual average temperatures. Yet little research (if any) has pursued the impact of climate change on buildings - energy use, peak demand, costs, equipment life, and comfort/discomfort. Will climate change cause significant increases in energy use and peak demand - along with cost shocks? Will demands on building heating and cooling equipment decrease life? What are the potential impacts on comfort? The paper will present the results of work to characterize the potential impact of climate change on a small office building test case. Using detailed temperature change predictions from the major climate change scenarios, existing typical weather data are modified. These modified data are then used in multi-scenario, multi-year building energy and environmental performance simulations. Summary results from the simulation work are presented.

Details

  • Original title: Impact of climate change on buildings.
  • Record ID : 2005-0314
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Environment, General information
  • Publication date: 2003/09/24
  • Source: Source: CIBSE-ASHRAE, Proc. jt. Conf. Build. Sustain. Value Profit Conf., Edinburgh
    11 p.; fig.; tabl.; 11 ref.

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