The impact from varying wind parameters and climate zones on building energy use : A case study on two multi-family buildings in Sweden using building energy simulation

Abstract: Globally, buildings utilize 35 % of the final energy use and contribute to approximately one-third of CO2 emissions. Hence, reducing the energy use of buildings contributes to a large amount of CO2 emissions to be decreased. The building’s energy use is affected by many parameters, including wind which plays an important role in building energy use. In this thesis, we aim to analyze the impact of wind parameters on building’s energy use on two multi-family building types with natural ventilation at various wind sheltering conditions at different climatic zones in Sweden. Building energy simulation models (BES) of a standalone and an attached building located in Visby, Sweden, were constructed with the use of the dynamic BES IDA ICE. Luleå and Malmö were taken as other two study locations to investigate the impact from different climate zones. The simulations were performed with the constructed calculation models, with the various wind sheltering conditions at the different climatic zones to calculate the energy use of the buildings and ventilation and infiltration losses. The sensitivity analysis was then carried out based on changing the wind profile of the climate file to evaluate the impact of wind on the ventilation and infiltration losses, as well as the heat energy use of the building. The results showed that the energy use for space heating of the attached building was 89 kWh/m2 (38 %) lower than the standalone building. The energy use varies between 9–20 kWh/m2 (3–10 %) considering the exposed, semi-exposed and sheltered wind condition for the two building types. In the different climate zones, Luleå has 47 kWh/m2 higher energy use compared to Visby and Malmö for the standalone building. The corresponding figure for the attached building is 25 kWh/m2. The sensitivity analysis show that when the wind speed is increased by 100 %, the ventilation and infiltration losses increase between 3563–18683 kWh (54–61 %) while the energy use of the building increases between 11–54 kWh/m2 (20–27 %).