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Visualizing Urban Microclimate and Quantifying its Impact on Building Energy Use in San Francisco

Publication Type

Conference Paper

Date Published

11/2019

Authors

Hong, Tianzhen, Yujie Xu, Kaiyu Sun, Wanni Zhang, Xuan Luo

DOI

10.1145/336345910.1145/3363459.3363536

Abstract

Weather data at nearby airports are usually used in building energy simulation to estimate energy use in buildings or evaluate building design or retrofit options. However, due to urbanization and geography characteristics, local weather conditions can differ significantly from those at airports. This study presents the visualization of 10-year hourly weather data measured at 27 sites in San Francisco, aiming to provide insights into the urban microclimate and urban heat island effect in San Francisco and how they evolve during the recent decade. The 10-year weather data are used in building energy simulations to investigate its influence on energy use and electrical peak demand, which informs the city’s policy making on building energy efficiency and resilience. The visualization feature is implemented in CityBES, an open web-based data and computing platform for urban building energy research.

Journal

the 1st ACM International WorkshopProceedings of the 1st ACM International Workshop on Urban Building Energy Sensing, Controls, Big Data Analysis, and Visualization - UrbSys'19

Year of Publication

2019