Interdependencies and impacts of climate change for existing and newly built office buildings (office buildings in climate change)
Abstract
The following interdependencies and impacts of climate change for existing and newly built office buildings are, by now, predictable and common knowledge: Ø climate change will massively and negatively impact upon thermal comfort of office users by rising indoor temperatures Ø productivity of office workers is directly influenced by increased indoor temperatures Ø reduced thermal cs costs (as salaries make up for the single most important budget point of the majority of enomfort thereby raiseterprises) Ø in order to counteract, it will be necessary to implement mechanical cooling on large scale. Mechanical cooling strongly depends upon the availability of electricity at peak hours. Ø Due to significantly increased electricity demand this availability might generally not be guar-anteed everywhere at any time. Ø At the same time, the generation of the requested electricity involves emissions of climate gases which further induce global warming and further aggravate the above mentioned ef-fects. Project focus Taking certain Viennese office buildings as concise examples, the project aims at establishing a re-search routine for the investigation of climate change’s impact upon thermal comfort in both existing and to-be-built offices. Special emphasis is put on users’ behaviour and options of influencing it positively (in the sense of increased energy efficiency). This project covers new fields of research and fills gaps: Ø impacts of climate change on the thermal performance of office blocks are investigated by means of thermal simulation and thermal comfort for users is thus evaluated. Herein, also ef-fects of local microclimate are considered; already today, these effects can even surpass those to be expected due to climate change. This may well lead to the failing of nocturnal ventilation strategies which might had been proven suitable in thermal simulations. This is especially true for plus energy houses which do not reign sufficient reserves to puffer demand exciding predicted levels. Ø Users’ influence on buildings’ thermal performance is often underestimated. Therefore, this project intends to give an estimation on climate induced changes of users’ behaviour. Ø Thereby, the project provides indispensable fundamentals for the evolvement of adaptation strategies for buildings to the impacts of climate change which will have to be implemented by both real estate economy and politics.
Publikationen
Project staff
Herbert Formayer
Assoc. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Herbert Formayer
herbert.formayer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81415
BOKU Project Leader
01.11.2009 - 30.04.2011
Helga Kromp-Kolb
Em.O.Univ.Prof. Dr.h.c. Helga Kromp-Kolb
helga.kromp-kolb@boku.ac.at
Sub Projectleader
01.11.2009 - 30.04.2011
Roman Smutny
Dipl.-Ing. Roman Smutny
roman.smutny@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-37302
Project Staff
01.11.2009 - 30.04.2011
BOKU partners
External partners
Danube University Krems, Department for Building and Environment
Dipl.-Ing. Tanja Berger
partner