Future climatic effect on building refurbishment using ventilation for cooling: A case study

This paper presents the effect of specific future climate changes scenarios on the resilience of the refurbishment of a 1960s office building in suburban London. A model of the building was created and simulated using IESVE to predict current energy consumption calibrated with operational energy data. Energy efficient improvements were incorporated which mainly consist of improving the insulation and air-tightness of external envelope, reducing solar and internal gain and utilising natural ventilation during the day and night for improving thermal comfort in the summer. Climate change scenarios were investigated by using future climates weather files available for the UK. It was found that thermal comfort in the summer can be significantly improve and provide acceptable condition in most areas of the building at present and in the future. Energy consumption can be improved by 80% of present consumption. This can be compared with projections that office CO2 emissions from office building will increase two to three-fold in the future due to increased cooling requirements.