Energy Balances, Thermal Performance, and Heat Stress: Disentangling Occupant Behaviour and Weather Influences in a Dutch Net-Zero Energy Neighborhood

H. Kazmi, M. Keijsers, Fahad Mehmood () and C. Miller
Additional contact information
Fahad Mehmood: Métis Lab EM Normandie - EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie = EM Normandie Business School

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Decarbonizing the building stock is a central component of global climate change mitigation efforts. In practice, this decarbonization can be achieved by a variety of different measures, including improvements in building energy efficiency, electrification of energy demand to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and installation of distributed (renewable) generation in conjunction with flexible storage. However, these large-scale, often disruptive changes to the built environment also raise a number of concerns, such as loss of occupant comfort exacerbated by climate change, and introduction of additional stressors on the distribution grid. In this paper, we demonstrate several conclusions using detailed sub-hourly data of two years (2019\textendash2020) collected from 40 homes in a recently refurbished net-zero energy neighborhood in the Netherlands. This paper shows that, in renovation projects like the case study, net-zero energy balances should be considered on a neighborhood, rather than building level to minimize worst case planning by accounting for occupant influences and seasonal effects. Furthermore, the energy flexibility and climate resilience in the buildings seems to be rather limited, as a result of energy efficiency improvements. While helpful in climate change mitigation efforts, the large seasonal differences in energy demand and generation imply that this evolution is perhaps sub-optimal from the grid perspective. The results illustrate that all homes in the study were net-zero energy over the two year period, sometimes net positive by up to a factor of three. This led to considerable excess generation especially during the summer months. In addition, it was found that indoor air temperature sensors in a number of buildings showed overheating beyond guideline thermal comfort temperature of 25°C, showing potential thermal comfort and heat stress for vulnerable occupants. These results motivate energy storage or modifications of the installed heat pumps to leverage summer excess generation while reducing the impact of summer heat waves. These findings should enable the Netherlands and other countries aiming to fully decarbonize the building stock formulate better, future-proof policies. \textcopyright 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Heat stress; Net-zero energy buildings; Net-zero energy neighborhoods; Residential energy balance; Residential thermal comfort (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Energy and Buildings, 2022, 263 (112020), ⟨10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112020⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04317814

DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112020

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().