Highly Reflective Roofing Sheets Installed on a School Building to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect in Osaka

Jihui Yuan, Kazuo Emura and Craig Farnham
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Jihui Yuan: Department of Housing and Environmental Design, Graduate School of Human Life Science, Osaka City University, 558-8585 Osaka, Japan
Kazuo Emura: Department of Housing and Environmental Design, Graduate School of Human Life Science, Osaka City University, 558-8585 Osaka, Japan
Craig Farnham: Department of Housing and Environmental Design, Graduate School of Human Life Science, Osaka City University, 558-8585 Osaka, Japan

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: Currently, strategies to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects and reduce building energy consumption are implemented worldwide. In Japan, as an effective means of mitigating UHI effects and saving energy of buildings, highly reflective (HR) roofs have increasingly been used. In this study, in order to evaluate the effect of HR roofs on building energy conservation, we investigated the solar reflectivity of a subject school roof in Osaka, Japan, in which HR roofing sheets were installed on the roof from 2010. Additionally, monthly and annual thermal loads, including the cooling load and heating load of the top floor of the school, were calculated using the thermal load calculation software New HASP/ACLD-β. Comparing the calculated thermal loads of the school after HR roofing sheet installation to before, the annual thermal load decreased about 25 MJ/m 2 /year, and the cooling load decreased about 112 MJ/m 2 /year. However, the heating load increased about 87 MJ/m 2 /year in winter. To minimize the annual thermal load, thermal insulation of the roof was also considered to be used together with HR roofing sheets. Thermal load calculations showed that the combination of HR roofing sheets and thermal insulation can be effective in further reducing the annual thermal load.

Keywords: urban heat island; building roofs; highly reflective roofing sheets; thermal insulation; thermal load (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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