Performance-based validation of climatic zoning for building energy efficiency applications

Abstract

10Climatic zoning for building energy efficiency applications is an important element in building energy policy and 11 regulations. There are several methodologies available to conduct climatic zoning, providing significantly different results. 12Currently, there are no procedures to assess the validity of a proposed climatic zoning, hindering the decision to use one 13 particular climatic zoning methodology instead of another. This paper introduces a quality index and a procedure to support 14 the validation of climatic zoning. The procedure is based on building performance simulation results concerning the 15 building stock that is targeted in the climatic zoning policy or program. Simulation results are used to calculate a new index, 16the Mean Percentage of Misclassified Areas (MPMA), which assesses the quality of the zoning under analysis. The 17capabilities of this procedure were demonstrated by the evaluation of four alternatives for the climatic zoning of Nicaragua, 18 obtained using different methodologies and previously reported in the literature. The building stock used in this case study 19 is composed of a few archetypes based on typical naturally ventilated dwellings in this country. Simulations were conducted 20 using the program EnergyPlus for a total of 328 locations in Nicaragua. Degree-hours of discomfort based on the adaptive 21 model of ASHRAE Standard 55 were used as a performance indicator. Results indicate that zoning obtained using cluster 22 analysis and cooling degree-days may misclassify 1 out of 5 areas in Nicaragua (MPMA around 18% to 20%). This study 23 concludes that the validation procedure and proposed index are useful for highlighting qualities and deficiencies of existing 24 climatic zoning methods, particularly when these methods are used in less conventional applications, such as for policy 25 making targeting naturally ventilated dwellings in tropical climates. The application of this procedure in more than 50 26 countries which adopt climatic zoning is foreseen as the next step in his area, substantially affecting the prescription of 27 building materials and components worldwide. 28 29

GIS-based approach to identify climatic zoning: A hierarchical clustering on principal component analysis

“…Multivariable statistical analysis based on clustering methods makes it possible to obtain an efficient climate classification [27] and seem more coherent for building concerns [8]. Other studies confirmed the interest of clustering [28,29] and specifically of k-means clustering with Euclidean distance correlation as a measure of similarity for the classification of a climate in general [16,18] or adapted to a building [1,2,22,[30][31][32][33]. The quality and availability of the parameters used for climate classification are essential.…”

Validation of the climatic zoning defined by ASHRAE standard 169-2013

“…These regulations are key instruments used to enforce minimum performance targets, to define subsidies and to implement strategies to achieve ambitious goals for energy conservation and CO2 emission reductions. Despite the relevance, most of the current climatic zonings methodologies are based on simplified weather parameters and are usually assumed to be correct and valid per se, being directly applied to building energy regulations without going through a validation process (Walsh et al, 2018a). These assumptions can lead to inconsistencies between the climatic zones and energy performance of individual buildings, consequently affecting the performance of the whole building stock and the effectiveness of building energy policies (Burleyson et al, 2017;M.…”

“…In that regard, a method to address climatic zoning validation using quantitative procedures has been recently reported in the literature (Walsh et al, 2018a). This method is based on building performance, rather than on weather data.…”

“…It relies on the principle that two areas belonging to the same climatic zoning should have similar building performance metrics for a given building. The use of the performance-based validation of climatic zoning for building energy efficiency applications has shown a great potential to quantify the level of mismatch between climatic zones and building energy performance (Walsh et al, 2018a). So far, this validation method has been applied to a case study focused on low-rise domestic buildings with no Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) in a tropical developing country (Walsh et al, 2018a).…”

“…The use of the performance-based validation of climatic zoning for building energy efficiency applications has shown a great potential to quantify the level of mismatch between climatic zones and building energy performance (Walsh et al, 2018a). So far, this validation method has been applied to a case study focused on low-rise domestic buildings with no Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) in a tropical developing country (Walsh et al, 2018a). Such results are important considering the rapid penetration of air conditioning in low income and middle income countries such as Brazil, India, China, Mexico, among other countries (Sivak, 2009;Villareal and Moreira, 2016;Wu et al, 2019).…”