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Title: Potential impacts of climate change on the built environment: ASHRAE climate zones, building codes and national energy efficiency

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: ASHRAE releases updates to 90.1 “Energy Standard for Buildings except Low-Rise Residential Buildings” every three years resulting in a 3.7%-17.3% increase in energy efficiency for buildings with each release. This is adopted by or informs building codes in nations across the globe, is the National Standard for the US, and individual states elect which release year of the standard they will enforce. These codes are built upon Standard 169 “Climatic Data for Building Design Standards,” the latest 2017 release of which defines climate zones based on 8, 118 weather stations throughout the world and data from the past 8-25 years. This data may not be indicative of the weather that new buildings built today, will see during their upcoming 30-120 year lifespan. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Using more modern, high-resolution datasets from climate satellites, IPCC climate models (PCM and HadGCM), high performance computing resources (Titan) and new capabilities for clustering and optimization the authors briefly analyzed different methods for redefining climate zones. Using bottom-up analysis of multiple meteorological variables which were the subject matter, experts selected as being important to energy consumption, rather than the heating/cooling degree days currently used. Findings: We analyzed the accuracy ofmore » redefined climate zones, compared to current climate zones and how the climate zones moved under different climate change scenarios, and quantified the accuracy of these methods on a local level, at a national scale for the US. Conclusion & Significance: There is likely to be a significant annual, national energy and cost (billions USD) savings that could be realized by adjusting climate zones to take into account anticipated trends or scenarios in regional weather patterns.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. ORNL
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
OSTI Identifier:
1435191
DOE Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 3rd Annual Congress on Pollution and Global Warming - Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America - 10/16/2017 12:00:00 PM-10/18/2017 12:00:00 PM
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Citation Formats

New, Joshua Ryan, Kumar, Jitendra, and Hoffman, Forrest M. Potential impacts of climate change on the built environment: ASHRAE climate zones, building codes and national energy efficiency. United States: N. p., 2017. Web.
New, Joshua Ryan, Kumar, Jitendra, & Hoffman, Forrest M. Potential impacts of climate change on the built environment: ASHRAE climate zones, building codes and national energy efficiency. United States.
New, Joshua Ryan, Kumar, Jitendra, and Hoffman, Forrest M. 2017. "Potential impacts of climate change on the built environment: ASHRAE climate zones, building codes and national energy efficiency". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1435191.
@article{osti_1435191,
title = {Potential impacts of climate change on the built environment: ASHRAE climate zones, building codes and national energy efficiency},
author = {New, Joshua Ryan and Kumar, Jitendra and Hoffman, Forrest M.},
abstractNote = {Statement of the Problem: ASHRAE releases updates to 90.1 “Energy Standard for Buildings except Low-Rise Residential Buildings” every three years resulting in a 3.7%-17.3% increase in energy efficiency for buildings with each release. This is adopted by or informs building codes in nations across the globe, is the National Standard for the US, and individual states elect which release year of the standard they will enforce. These codes are built upon Standard 169 “Climatic Data for Building Design Standards,” the latest 2017 release of which defines climate zones based on 8, 118 weather stations throughout the world and data from the past 8-25 years. This data may not be indicative of the weather that new buildings built today, will see during their upcoming 30-120 year lifespan. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Using more modern, high-resolution datasets from climate satellites, IPCC climate models (PCM and HadGCM), high performance computing resources (Titan) and new capabilities for clustering and optimization the authors briefly analyzed different methods for redefining climate zones. Using bottom-up analysis of multiple meteorological variables which were the subject matter, experts selected as being important to energy consumption, rather than the heating/cooling degree days currently used. Findings: We analyzed the accuracy of redefined climate zones, compared to current climate zones and how the climate zones moved under different climate change scenarios, and quantified the accuracy of these methods on a local level, at a national scale for the US. Conclusion & Significance: There is likely to be a significant annual, national energy and cost (billions USD) savings that could be realized by adjusting climate zones to take into account anticipated trends or scenarios in regional weather patterns.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1435191}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Conference:
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