A Building Retrofit and Sensitivity Analysis in an Automatically Calibrated Model Considering the Urban Heat Island Effect in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Lindita Bande, Adalberto Guerra Cabrera, Young Ki Kim, Afshin Afshari, Mario Favalli Ragusini and Melanie Gines Cooke
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Lindita Bande: Architectural Engineering Department, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 15258, UAE
Adalberto Guerra Cabrera: Integrated Environmental Solutions, Glasgow G20 0SP, UK
Young Ki Kim: Architectural Engineering Department, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 15258, UAE
Afshin Afshari: Department of Energy Efficiency and Indoor Climate, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Mario Favalli Ragusini: Integrated Environmental Solutions, Glasgow G20 0SP, UK
Melanie Gines Cooke: School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Herriot Wat University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: Villas are a very common building typology in Abu Dhabi. Due to its preponderance in residential areas, studying how to effectively reduce energy demand for this type of building is critical for Abu Dhabi, and many similar cities in the region. This study aims to show the impact of proposed energy efficiency measures on a villa using a calibrated model and to demonstrate that to be accurate, the model must be driven using urban weather data instead of rural weather data due to the significance of the urban heat island effect. Available data for this case study includes construction properties, on-site (urban) weather data, occupancy-related loads and schedules and rural weather data. Four main steps were followed, weather data customisation combining urban and rural weather variables, model calibration using a genetic algorithm-based tool and simulating retrofit strategies. We created a calibrated model for electricity demand during 2016–2017 with a 4% normalized mean bias error and an 11% coefficient of variation of the mean square error. Changing from none to all retrofit strategies results in a 34% reduction in annual energy consumption. According to the calibrated model, increased urban temperatures cause a 7.1% increase in total energy consumption.

Keywords: energy simulation; villa-building typology; IES (integrated environmental solutions) software; automatic model calibration; urban heat island (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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