Building energy modeling at neighborhood scale

The urban climate and outdoor air quality of cities that have a positive thermal balance depending on the thermal consumptions of buildings cause an increase of the urban heat island and global warming effects. The aim of this work has been to develop an energy balance using the energy consumption data of the district heating network. The here presented engineering energy model is at a neighborhood scale, and the energy-use results have been obtained from a heat balance of residential buildings, by means of a quasi-steady state method, on a monthly basis. The modeling approach also considers the characteristics of the urban context that may have a significant effect on its energy performance. The model includes a number of urban variables, such as solar exposition and thermal radiation lost to the sky of the built environment. This methodology was applied to thirty-three 1 km × 1 km meshes in the city of Turin, using the monthly energy consumption data of three consecutive heating seasons. The results showed that the model is accurate for old built areas; the average error is 10% for buildings constructed before 1970, while the error reaches 20% for newer buildings. The importance and originality of this study are related to the fact that the energy balance is applied at neighborhood scale and urban parameters are introduced with the support of a GIS tool. The resulting engineering models can be applied as a decision support tool for citizens, public administrations, and policy makers to evaluate the distribution of energy consumptions and the relative GHG emissions to promote a more sustainable urban environment. Future researches will be carried out with the aim of introducing other urban variables into the model, such as the canyon effect and the presence of vegetation.