Urban microclimate and its impact on building performance: A case study of San Francisco

Hong, Tianzhen; Xu, Yujie; Sun, Kaiyu; Zhang, Wanni; Luo, Xuan; Hooper, Barry

doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100871

Title: Urban microclimate and its impact on building performance: A case study of San Francisco

Journal Article · Thu May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Urban Climate

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100871· OSTI ID:1828570

Hong, Tianzhen ^[1]; Xu, Yujie ^[1]; Sun, Kaiyu ^[1]; Zhang, Wanni ^[1]; Luo, Xuan ^[1]; Hooper, Barry ^[2]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Dept. of the Environment, San Francisco, CA (United States).

Urban microclimate exerts an increasing influence on urban buildings, energy, and sustainability. This study uses 10-year measured hourly weather data at 27 sites in San Francisco, California, to (1) analyze and visualize the urban microclimate patterns and urban heat island effect; (2) simulate annual energy use and peak electricity demand of typical large office buildings and large hotels to investigate the influence of urban microclimate on building performance; (3) simulate indoor air temperature of a single-family house without air-conditioning during the record three-day heatwave of 2017, to quantify the divergence of climate resilience due to urban microclimate effect. Results show significant microclimate effects in San Francisco with up to 11 °C outdoor air temperature difference between the coastal and downtown areas on September 1, 2017, during the record three-day heatwave. The simulated energy results of the prototype large office and large hotel buildings using the 2017 weather data show over 100% difference in annual heating energy use and 65% difference in annual cooling energy use across different stations; as well as up to 30% difference in peak cooling electricity demand. The impacts on annual site or source energy use are minimal (less than 5%) as cooling and heating in a mild climate are a relatively small portion of overall building energy use in San Francisco. Results also show the microclimate effects influence indoor air temperature of unconditioned homes by up to 5 °C. Newer buildings and homes are much less affected by microclimate effects due to more stringent performance requirements of the building envelope and energy systems. Furthermore, these findings inform that San Francisco microclimate variations should be considered in urban energy planning, building energy codes and standards, as well as heat resilience policymaking.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1828570

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1782918

Journal Information:: Urban Climate, Vol. 38; ISSN 2212-0955

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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