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Modeling Thermal Interactions between Buildings in an Urban Context

Author

Listed:
  • Xuan Luo

    (Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • Tianzhen Hong

    (Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

  • Yu-Hang Tang

    (Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA)

Abstract

Thermal interactions through longwave radiation exchange between buildings, especially in a dense urban environment, can strongly influence a building’s energy use and environmental impact. However, these interactions are either neglected or oversimplified in urban building energy modeling. We developed a new feature in EnergyPlus to explicitly consider this term in the surface heat balance calculations and developed an algorithm to batch calculating the surrounding surfaces’ view factors using a ray-tracing technique. We conducted a case study with a district in the Chicago downtown area to evaluate the longwave radiant heat exchange effects between urban buildings. Results show that the impact of the longwave radiant effects on annual energy use ranges from 0.1% to 3.3% increase for cooling and 0.3% to 3.6% decrease for heating, varying among individual buildings. At the district level, the total energy demand increases by 1.39% for cooling and decreases 0.45% for heating. We also observe the longwave radiation can increase the exterior surface temperature by up to 10 °C for certain exterior surfaces. These findings justify a detailed and accurate way to consider the thermal interactions between buildings in an urban context to inform urban planning and design.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuan Luo & Tianzhen Hong & Yu-Hang Tang, 2020. "Modeling Thermal Interactions between Buildings in an Urban Context," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:9:p:2382-:d:356031
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. You Jin Kwon & Dong Kun Lee, 2019. "Thermal Comfort and Longwave Radiation over Time in Urban Residential Complexes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Li, Wenliang & Zhou, Yuyu & Cetin, Kristen & Eom, Jiyong & Wang, Yu & Chen, Gang & Zhang, Xuesong, 2017. "Modeling urban building energy use: A review of modeling approaches and procedures," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 2445-2457.
    3. Chen, Yixing & Hong, Tianzhen & Piette, Mary Ann, 2017. "Automatic generation and simulation of urban building energy models based on city datasets for city-scale building retrofit analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 323-335.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ehsan Kamel, 2022. "A Systematic Literature Review of Physics-Based Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM) Tools, Data Sources, and Challenges for Energy Conservation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-24, November.
    2. Hu, Yuqing & Cheng, Xiaoyuan & Wang, Suhang & Chen, Jianli & Zhao, Tianxiang & Dai, Enyan, 2022. "Times series forecasting for urban building energy consumption based on graph convolutional network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    3. Yue Zheng & Jinpei Ou & Guangzhao Chen & Xinxin Wu & Xiaoping Liu, 2022. "Mapping Building-Based Spatiotemporal Distributions of Carbon Dioxide Emission: A Case Study in England," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-22, May.
    4. Shu, Lei & Mo, Yunjeong & Zhao, Dong, 2024. "Energy retrofits for smart and connected communities: Scopes and technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Valeria Todeschi & Roberto Boghetti & Jérôme H. Kämpf & Guglielmina Mutani, 2021. "Evaluation of Urban-Scale Building Energy-Use Models and Tools—Application for the City of Fribourg, Switzerland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-22, February.
    6. Guglielmina Mutani & Valeria Todeschi & Simone Beltramino, 2020. "Energy Consumption Models at Urban Scale to Measure Energy Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-31, July.
    7. Xavier Faure & Tim Johansson & Oleksii Pasichnyi, 2022. "The Impact of Detail, Shadowing and Thermal Zoning Levels on Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) on a District Scale," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Fahad Haneef & Giovanni Pernigotto & Andrea Gasparella & Jérôme Henri Kämpf, 2021. "Application of Urban Scale Energy Modelling and Multi-Objective Optimization Techniques for Building Energy Renovation at District Scale," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-26, October.

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