Interdependent energy relationships between buildings at the street scale

Julie Futcher*, Gerald Mills, Rohinton Emmanuel

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)
    268 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Regulated energy loads of buildings are typically explored at the scale of individual buildings, often in isolated (and idealized) circumstances. By comparison, little research currently exists on the performance of building groups that accounts for the interactions between buildings. Consequently, the energy efficiency (or penalty) of different urban configurations (such as a city street) is overlooked. The present paper examines the energy demand of a city street in London, UK, which is comprised of typical office buildings with internal energy gains associated with daytime occupancy. Simulations are performed for office buildings placed in urban canyons that are defined by the ratio of building height (H) to street width (W). The results show the annual energy demand is dominated by the cooling load, which can be significantly reduced through street design that provides shading by increasing H/W. However, the ‘best’ street design for modern office buildings may be incompatible with that for residences or, for that matter, outdoor climates.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)829-844
    Number of pages16
    JournalBuilding, Research & Information
    Volume46
    Issue number8
    Early online date14 Aug 2018
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 17 Nov 2018

    Keywords

    • building performance evaluation
    • built form
    • urban climate
    • urban design
    • office buildings
    • heating and cooling loads
    • street design
    • urban microclimate
    • urban canyon
    • building performance
    • height-to-width ratio

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Building and Construction
    • Civil and Structural Engineering

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Interdependent energy relationships between buildings at the street scale'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this