Optimisation of Building Low-carbon Strategies Integrating Prediction of Future Overheating
The increase of indoor temperatures has widely become of particular concern in summers, which is considered as the collective effect of the highly efficient low-carbon strategies and global warming. A growing number of studies have forged links between overheating in buildings,thermal discomfort and heat-related diseases of occupants, especially the vulnerable and the elderly. The summertime overheating issue is especially of significance and severity in heating-dominated regions, where domestic cooling systems are widely inapplicable.
The occurrence of future heat vulnerability in buildings designed using the parametric optimisation, is linked to the lack of future weather condition assessment during the process. However, the ability to evaluate the impact of future climate on indoor overheating and to contain its risk, is limited under the existing methodological framework. To address this issue, this research aims to integrate future overheating risk assessment into the building parametric optimisation. This will enable its capability to deliver the future-fit housing that is not only energy efficient and decarbonised, but also comfortable and healthy. Outcomes are expected to provide essential knowledge to built environment researchers, and to contribute to decision support for policy formulation for the national decarbonisation campaign.