C23 -- Upgrading Cooling Degree-Day Theory in Regard to Thermal Comfort Aiming to Attain Low-Carbon Buildings Under Climate Change PDF

Since a significant portion of energy use in each building is devoted to the air conditioning system, any proceeding to improve HVAC systems performance can mitigate the embodied GHG emissions in buildings under global climate change. In addition, applying inefficient and outdated energy estimation methods like the Degree-Day Method (DDM) to categorize buildings in terms of energy demand rate can affect the selection of a suitable energy strategy for buildings. Given that it has been a long time since ASHRAE standards such as 169, 90.1, 90.2, 100, and IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) have been enforcing the use of DDM as a grand strategy to classify buildings in terms of energy use like choosing envelope insulation types, façade design, minimum efficiency of HVAC systems, etc. any changes to eliminate the drawbacks of the DDM can reduce the carbon footprint generation. The fact is that the DDM has less relation to providing individual comfort because many studies in the past explored that the setting of non-dynamic setpoint temperature is incapable of satisfying people's comfort, which conducts to manipulating the indoor thermostat by end-users to uncommon setpoints and rising in the energy-wasting of HVAC systems. Furthermore, the ultimate goal of setting up the HVAC system in each building is to provide thermal comfort for people, so any neglect of the HVAC system performance under climate change in energy estimation can cause a considerable deviation in strategy selection. This study seeks to recommend a new framework to bridge between the DDM and genuine thermal comfort obtained from HVAC systems. A notable energy analysis based on the indoor cooling/heating load profile will be proposed in this research. Finally, the carbon emissions can be evaluated by comparing the energy bills of a case-study building to the DDM strategy and the new method. The outcomes illustrated that the new proposed model could prepare the primary infrastructure for buildings to take significant steps in achieving low-carbon buildings.