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Embedding scientific knowledge in policy and practice is crucial for effective disaster risk reduction and planning, but key barriers remain in using science effectively for these purposes. In countries like Nepal, subjected to frequent multi-hazards like earthquakes and landslides, science is acutely needed but not always utilized for risk planning. Here we explore the current uses and requirements for science-based risk information in earthquake and monsoon contingency planning by the government-led, UN-coordinated humanitarian clusters in Nepal. Through a series of structured focus group discussions, we identify the information currently used in disaster preparedness and when that information is required. We find that all clusters share key information needs, including caseloads in terms of number of affected people or households and multi-hazard risk information, particularly around landslides. Information needs for anticipated but uncertain hazards like earthquakes are focused on large-scale vulnerability and risk mapping. In contrast, shorter-term needs for impending hazards, like impacts from the monsoon, are more detailed and cluster-specific. Respondents highlighted that scientific knowledge is well integrated into earthquake planning but less for monsoon planning. A significant barrier to this integration is the availability of data at appropriate spatial resolutions and with adequate lead times. For initial monsoon planning, long-term seasonal forecasts aggregated at district or provincial scales are preferred, but as the monsoon approaches, most clusters preferred higher spatial resolution data despite increased uncertainty. Improved multi-hazard risk information, including landslide, and better support for caseload determination are critical outstanding knowledge gaps that could be filled by new research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Buildings in the EU contribute significantly to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, with HVAC systems being major contributors. This paper assesses the impact of the resilience of various cooling strategies on thermal comfort, energy consumption, and GHG emissions in the residential building stock in Belgium. This study uses an innovative approach for sizing and designing cooling systems, considering the impact of climate change on future weather conditions and extreme heatwaves. The findings reveal alarming temperature increases, with potential rises of up to 4.1 °C from the 2010s to the 2090s, particularly in the high-emission SSP5-8.5 scenario. The study investigates three cooling strategies: scenario 1 (mechanical ventilation), scenario 2 (mechanical ventilation and natural ventilation), and scenario 3 (mechanical ventilation, natural ventilation, and split system). In scenario 1, there is a notable increase in Indoor Overheating Degree (IOhD), reaching up to 586% in the 2090s for semi-detached buildings, while scenario 2 consistently reduces IOhD, reaching only 0.2 °C by the 2090s. Scenario 3 achieves near-zero IOhD by the 2050s and 2090s. Notably, the "Heatwave [2081–2100]" exhibits unprecedented daytime temperatures, peaking at 46.0 °C. During the 2054 heatwave, insulated buildings maintained the Indoor Operative Temperature (IOpT) below 40 °C, whereas non-insulated buildings reached 44.3 °C, indicating challenges in meeting thermal comfort standards. Furthermore, cooling energy consumption increased by 106%–141% in the 2050s and surge by 174%–280% in the 2090s compared to the 2010s, along with significant GHG emissions growth in the future scenarios, particularly in SSP5-8.5. • Belgium faces 4.1 °C temp rise by 2090s, emphasizing climate urgency. • Evaluation of three resilient cooling strategies for effective adaptation. • Heatwaves peak at 46.0 °C in late 21st century, stressing need for improved cooling. • Advanced cooling solutions achieves near-zero overheating by 2050s, showcasing efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores two modeling approaches for occupancy detection at room level for residential buildings in Denmark. The aim is to assess the performance and generalizability of occupant detection models using XGBoost method trained on a rich dataset comprising indoor environmental quality (IEQ) variables and occupancy ground truth. A global approach (all rooms) and a room-specific approach are considered. After a thorough feature- selection and importance analysis process, the occupancy detection models (ODMs) are trained and tested in a nested cross-validation schema. The time of the day, indoor CO 2 concentration, and feature transforms related to short-term IEQ dynamics were found to be the most important features of the ODMs. Both the global and room-specific models show good occupancy prediction performance, especially for bedrooms. When tested for generalizability with an unseen dataset from a different residential building, the ODMs maintain very good performance for the bedroom but not for the office room. This discrepancy could be explained by significant differences in occupancy and ventilation patterns, and large air infiltration from adjacent rooms. Although currently limited in terms of generalizability, XGBoost-based ODMs using IEQ data have the potential to provide robust and scalable occupancy detection for occupant-centric control and occupant-aware building performance assessments. The IEQ dataset with occupancy ground truth collected for this study is made available in open access. • Occupancy detection at room level in 5 apartments in Denmark. • Two approaches (global and room-specific) for modeling occupancy using XGBoost. • Both approaches perform satisfactorily with qualitative and quantitative assessments. • Good generalizability for bedrooms but poorer performance for office rooms. • Open access dataset of IEQ measurements and occupancy ground truth in 16 rooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The work presented in this paper is developed as a part of the Horizon 2020 EU project REFURB. The number of deep energy retrofits is falling behind the EU ambitious targets. The REFURB project aims at finding technical and nontechnical solutions that match the demand and supply side of the residential building renovation market. Due to the multiple significant differences at the national level, compelling offers are developed specifically for each country participant. This paper elaborates only on the Danish approach. The Danish approach to create compelling offers for pre-selected homeowner target groups is based on (I) selection of dwelling segment with high impact and energy saving potential, (II) sequenced approach in creating renovation package solutions, (III) compelling offer to be proposed with specific timing. This paper focuses mainly on the second listed component, namely, development of the renovation package solutions. The paper only briefly highlights the selection of dwelling segment and does not present the creation of compelling offer due to the length of the paper. Initially, developed renovation packages are optimized purely focusing on the least-cost optimal, theoretical, energy savings. As a result, very rational packages were developed that were not met with acceptance from the building sector stakeholders. After several surveys and meetings with renovation market stakeholders such as building owners, energy renovation contractors, financial institutions, and energy consultants, the initial renovation packages were redefined in order to take account for factors such as securing investment in the renovated real estate, comfort, architectural aesthetic, and "low hanging fruit" energy saving solutions. Finally, ten different customized renovation packages were developed ranging between up to 7.500 and 62.000 € and bringing theoretical primary energy savings between 30 and up to 80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Methodology for generating 1-minute load profiles from 1-hour readings of from smart meters. • Framework for power system impact analysis of the LV network in residential communities. • Low voltage network under the presence of different penetration levels of prosumers. • Energy infrastructure of future communities and/or cities will have different nature and time occurrence. • Risk for originating disturbances such as flicker at the user level is significant. Abstract Prosumers have a different interaction with the distribution network in comparison with traditional consumers. They have a bi-directional power exchange with the grid, meaning they receive from as well as deliver electricity to the network. The emergence of prosumers is expected to challenge the way network operators control the residential low-voltage (LV) distribution networks. Commonly, the metering of received and delivered electricity at the residential level is conducted on 1-hour basis, thus only hourly load/generation profiles are available for the system operators to conduct the power system impact analysis. Yet, it is relatively difficult to have an accurate prediction of the real system performance if the intra-hour phenomena are not considered. A better estimation requires employment of higher temporal resolution profiles during the power system studies. To address these challenges, which future smart cities and communities might face, this paper presents a methodology for generating 1-minute load profiles based on the hourly readings from smart meters. Secondly, it demonstrates gain in information about LV network by employing the high resolution profiles for power system impact analysis. Finally, it highlights the problems of smart residential networks with high share of prosumers for two LV network scenarios during winter and summer weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In Hot Summer and Cold Winter Climate Zone, the cooling potential of natural/passive night ventilation is limited during summer due to the insignificant difference between the outdoor and indoor temperatures. Therefore, a novel mechanical ventilation strategy, the wall-mounted attached ventilation (WAV) system, is proposed in the present paper to improve ventilation efficiency of night cooling. The idea is that WAV can produce a downward airflow over the internal wall surface that is somewhat similar to a sidewall jet, so as to achieve enhanced heat transfer in the room. This paper starts with a series of experiments in a test chamber, and continues with thermal analysis of the heat transfer characteristics and heat removal performance of WAV. The performance of night ventilation with WAV is further evaluated in terms of ventilation efficiency index and energy performance index. It is shown that the overall average value of the convective heat transfer coefficient at the internal wall surface with WAV is 10.79 W m−2 °C−1. With WAV, the amount of heat removed from the ventilated wall is about five times that in the natural night ventilation case, and the total amount of heat removed from the whole chamber is twice as much. The average value of the surface cooling effectiveness of WAV is 1.48, and the overall coefficient of performance (COP) of WAV turns out to be 26.8. As a night ventilation strategy, WAV is capable to achieve good cooling performance under hot summer conditions. Highlights • A novel wall-mounted attached ventilation (WAV) night cooling system proposed. • Experiments carried out to understand the temperature decreasing effect of WAV. • Transient heat transfer models established to analyse the thermal performance of WAV. • WAV has much better performance on surface cooling and heat removal than natural ventilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of solar shading in future low energy office buildings is essential for minimizing energy consumption for building services, while maintaining thermal conditions. Implementing solar shading technologies in energy calculations and thermal building simulation programs is essential in order to demonstrate the effect of adaptive solar shading. In order to document the benefits of the shading technology, the description of the shading device in the thermal building simulation software must be described at a reasonably accurate level, related to the specific solar shading device. This research presents different approaches for modeling solar shading devices, demonstrating the level of accuracy in relation to measurement conducted in a full-scale façade test facility at Aalborg University. The research bridges the gap between increased complexity of solar shading technologies and the use of these technologies in thermal building simulation software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study in this article investigates 15 ventilated window typologies with different pane configurations and glazing types in climates of four European countries (United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Germany) in order to identify the optimum typology with regard to their energy balance and impact on thermal comfort. Hourly simulations of the heat balances of the windows are conducted on four days representing different typical weather conditions according to the method described in EN ISO 13790. U and g values used in the calculation method are calculated in European software tool (WIS) for the calculation of the thermal and solar properties of commercial and innovative window systems. Additionally, comfort performance is evaluated by inlet air temperature and internal surface temperature of the windows calculated by WIS software. The results of the study show the energy and comfort performance of different ventilated window typologies and provide optimally ventilated window typologies for climates of these four European climates. The typologies with solar control or Low-emissivity (Low-e) coatings and typologies with double glazing on the outside have better performance in terms of either minimizing the energy consumption or optimizing the thermal comfort. The provided optimal window typologies can be used in residential and commercial buildings for both new constructions and renovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the biggest threats to building environment, heat wave events (HWEs) are the main external conditions that need to be considered when evaluating building overheating performance. However, there is no uniform definition of HWEs and most of them are not necessarily suitable for indoor overheating assessment. Therefore, an investigation is undertaken to explore the suitability of different definition of HWEs when assessing the extent of overheating in buildings. In this study, four HWE definitions are used to detect the HWEs in the three future scenarios for the three cities in different climate zones in China. The difference of the HWE characteristics is compared with the different definitions, and a definition of indoor HWEs is proposed. The relationship between indoor HWEs in prototype buildings and HWEs detected by different definitions is analyzed in specific scenarios. The results show that the relative HWE definition is more applicable than the absolute HWE definition. It is preferred to obtain a more continuous HWEs by using the average temperature to determine the threshold of HWEs than by using the maximum temperature. Relative temperature thresholds are more effective than absolute thresholds for synchronizing HWE and indoor overheating. Moreover, most severity HWE pose the greatest threat to indoor thermal condition, which can be used as the basis for selecting extreme hot year. As a result, the study shows that there may be 1–2 months of indoor overheating in passive buildings for these cities in the end of this century. • The performance of HWEs and indoor overheating for passive building is studied. • The synchronization of HWEs and indoor HWEs is studied. • The relative definition is suitable for detecting a consecutive heat wave event. • Severity is the most important characteristic of HWEs for indoor overheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated system is proposed in this study to combine diffuse ceiling ventilation with a thermally activated building construction (TABS), aiming to provide cooling/ heating and ventilation to an office room all year around. The performance of the integrated system is evaluated by full-scale experiments in a climate chamber. The experimental results indicate that diffuse ceiling can significantly improve thermal comfort in the occupied zone, by reducing draught risk and vertical temperature gradient. The linear function between pressure drop and air change rate points out that the air flow through diffuse ceiling is laminar. A thermal decay is found in the plenum air and the thermal performance of TABS may be influenced by water flow and air flow direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaporative cooling is a very interesting high temperature cooling solution that has potential to save energy comparing to refrigerant cooling systems and at the same time provide more cooling reliability than mechanical or natural ventilation system without cooling. Technical cooling potential of 5 different evaporative systems integrated in the ventilation system is investigated in this article. Annual analysis is conducted based on hourly weather data for 15 cities located in Denmark and 123 European cities. Investigated systems are direct, indirect, combinations of direct and indirect system and one with desiccant wheel. Obtained results indicate which system would be sufficient to provide necessary cooling load in order to maintain acceptable indoor temperature for specified range of heat gains and design air change rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use of centre-pivot roof windows is very common in single family houses in Nordic Europe. Unfortunately the wind-driven airflow characteristics of this kind of windows are missing in the scientific literature. In the present study, the airflow rate through the window was specified by using the discharge coefficient. Wind tunnel measurements using a modelled centre-pivot roof window was used in the present study. For smaller sash opening angles the value of discharge coefficient was approaching unity and the discharge coefficient decreased with increase in the sash opening angle. The value of 0.6 was only obtained when the window was without sash. Hence, the inclusion of sash improved the airflow characteristics of the window due to increased value of the discharge coefficient. The discharge coefficient also depended on turbulence in the flow. In the absence of external wind, the turbulence was described by the value of Re. Only for higher values of Re the still-air discharge coefficients became independent of the flow direction and the air velocity. Whereas for wind driven natural ventilation the ratio of average air speed within the opening and the reference wind speed (velocity ratio) was used to define the fully developed turbulent flow. Constant values of wind-driven discharge coefficients were obtained when the average air speed within the opening was equal to or greater than the reference wind speed i.e. the velocity ratio greater than unity. Moreover, when the velocity ratio was greater than unity, the still-air discharge coefficients became identical to the wind-driven discharge coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern office buildings are often designed with highly glazed facades, with an intention of being sufficiently day lit. However, extensive daylight supply has its backside, as glare might be a considerable concern. From a building design perspective it is important to be able to make reasonable predictions of discomfort glare from windows already in the early design stage when decisions regarding the façade are taken. This study focus on verifying if simple illuminance based measures like vertical illuminance at eye level or horizontal illuminance at the desk are correlated with the perceived glare reported by 44 test subjects in a repeated measure design occupant survey and if the reported glare corresponds with the predictions from the simple Daylight Glare Probability (DGPs) model. Large individual variations were seen in the occupants' assessment of glare in the present study. Yet, the results confirm that there is a statistically significant correlation between both vertical eye illuminance and horizontal illuminance at the desk and the occupants' perception of glare in a perimeter zone office environment, which is promising evidence towards utilizing such simple measures for indication of discomfort glare in early building design. Further, the observed response indicate that the participants in the present study were more tolerant to low illuminance levels and more sensitive to high illuminance levels than the DGPs model would predict. More and larger studies are needed to confirm or enfeeble this latter finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Comfort Houses" project is one of the most ambitious building projects for passive, single-family houses ever undertaken in Denmark. Thus far, different consortiums have designed and built 10 houses. Besides fulfilling the German passive-house standard, the goal of the project was to build the houses within Danish traditions of architecture and construction. The objective of the research presented in this paper is to compare the different design processes behind the making of passive houses in a Danish context. We evaluated the processes with regard to the integrated and traditional design processes. Data analysis showed that the majority of the consortiums worked in an integrated manner, though there was room for improvement. Additionally, the paper discusses the challenges of implementing the integrated design process in practice and suggests ways of overcoming some of the barriers. In doing so, we also provide suggestions for future work with low-energy houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to develop a simplified calculation method for intelligent glazed facade under different control conditions (night shutter, solar shading and natural ventilation) to simulate the energy performance and indoor environment of an office room installed with the intelligent facade. The method took the angle dependence of the solar characteristic into account, including the simplified hourly building model developed according to EN 13790 to evaluate the influence of the controlled façade on both the indoor environment (indoor air temperature, solar transmittance through the façade and the illuminance level on a chosen point) and the energy performance of the room. The parameters calculated by the simplified method were compared with the Danish building simulation tool BSim in an hourly calculation with the weather data of the Danish reference year. By using the simplified method, it is possible to calculate the whole year performance of a room or building with intelligent glazed façade, which makes it a less time consuming tool to investigate the performance of the intelligent façade under different control strategies in the design stage with acceptable accuracy. Results showed good agreement between the simplified method and BSim in terms of simulating the energy and comfort performance of the room. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Natural ventilation is a convenient way of reducing energy consumption in buildings. In this study an experimental module of an opaque ventilated façade (OVF) was built and tested for assessing its potential of supplying free ventilation and air preheating for the building. A numerical model was created and validated against the experimental data. The experimental results showed that the flow rates induced in the façade cavity were due to mixed driving forces: wind and buoyancy. Depending on the weather conditions one of them was the main driving force, or both were of the same order. When the wind force was the main driving force, higher flow rates were found. In these cases buoyancy acted as supporting driving force. When the wind speed was low and buoyancy prevailed lower flow rates were found. Air and surface temperatures were predicted by the numerical model with a better accuracy than flow and energy rates. The model predicts correctly the influence of the wind and buoyancy driving forces. The experimental OVF module showed potential for free ventilation and air preheating, although it depends on weather and geometrical variables. The use of the numerical model using the right parameters was found viable for analyzing the performance of an OVF. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Several case clusters occurred in high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong in the 2003 SARS (the severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic, which motivated a series of engineering investigations into the possible airborne transport routes. It is suspected that, driven by buoyancy force, the polluted air that exits the window of the lower floor may re-enter the immediate upper floor through the window on the same side. This cascade effect has been quantified and reported in a previous paper, and it is found that, by tracer gas concentration analysis, the room in the adjacent upstairs may contain up to 7% of the air directly from the downstairs room. In this study, after validation against the experimental data from literatures, Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches are both adopted to numerically investigate the dispersion of expiratory aerosols between two vertically adjacent flats. It is found that the particle concentration in the upper floor is two to three orders of magnitude lower than in the source floor. 1.0μm particles disperse like gaseous pollutants. For coarse particles larger than 20.0μm, strong deposition on solid surfaces and gravitational settling effect greatly limit their upward transport. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Airborne transmission of infectious respiratory diseases in indoor environments has drawn our attention for decades, and this issue is revitalized with the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). One of the concerns is that there may be multiple transmission routes across households in high-rise residential buildings, one of which is the natural ventilative airflow through open windows between flats, caused by buoyancy effects. Our early on-site measurement using tracer gases confirmed qualitatively and quantitatively that the re-entry of the exhaust-polluted air from the window of the lower floor into the adjacent upper floor is a fact. This study presents the modeling of this cascade effect using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. It is found that the presence of the pollutants generated in the lower floor is generally lower in the immediate upper floor by two orders of magnitude, but the risk of infection calculated by the Wells–Riley equation is only around one order of magnitude lower. It is found that, with single-side open-window conditions, wind blowing perpendicularly to the building may either reinforce or suppress the upward transport, depending on the wind speed. High-speed winds can restrain the convective transfer of heat and mass between flats, functioning like an air curtain. Despite the complexities of the air flow involved, it is clear that this transmission route should be taken into account in infection control. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Experiments were carried out using an experimental solar chimney model with uniform heat flux on one chimney wall with a variable chimney gap-to-height ratio between 1:15 and 2:5 and different heat flux and inclination angles. Results showed that a maximum airflow rate was achieved at an inclination angle around 45° for a 200 mm gap and 1.5 m high chimney, and the airflow rate is about 45% higher than that for a vertical chimney at otherwise identical conditions. It was found that the prediction method available in the literature can substantially overpredict the airflow rate for the chimney geometry investigated in this work, especially for vertical chimneys with large gaps. The main reason for the overprediction of airflow rate was shown due to the underestimation of the pressure losses at the chimney outlet by using loss coefficients obtained for normal forced flows. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is little specific knowledge of actual temperature conditions in buildings. This paper contributes with results from a detailed long-term monitoring campaign of temperature conditions in 17 households. Furthermore, these measurements are combined with qualitative interviews with 22 occupants in 16 households, on their heating practices. Implications for the assessment of the heat demand flexibility potential are discussed, and it is suggested that including occupants in future experiments can be a way to reach the full potential of buildings flexibility potential to a renewable energy sources dependent energy system. Quantitative data show that temperature conditions vary with time and space within each dwelling and between dwellings. In the same apartment, the temperature difference between spaces can be 7 K. The living rooms have the most homogeneous temperature distribution during 24 h period and the bedrooms most significant variations. Qualitative data indicate that aspects of: Activities performed by occupants; Caring for things, others and oneself; Comfort; Convenience; Natural and material surroundings affect occupants' heating practices. •Occupants' thermal preferences vary in time, space, and between households. •Area-weighted average temperature does not represent thermal conditions in space. •Heating practices vary by activity, caring, comfort, convenience, and surroundings. • Building energy flexibility experiments must include occupant thermal variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiant cooling is a promising thermal control technology for built environment. Unfortunately, condensation limits the potential of radiant cooling. Recently, numerous technologies have been developed to address the issue of condensation on radiant cooling surfaces. Nevertheless, a special review on the condensation control for radiant cooling is absent. The passive condensation prevention for radiant cooling refers to a technology that could realize the dew-free operation of radiant cooling terminals without additional control strategies or external energy consumption. The methods of creating surperhydrophobic surfaces and adding cover shields to prevent condensation on radiant cooling surfaces are systematically reviewed, involving anti-condensation mechanisms and specific studies. Finally, the limitations of passive methods are critically discussed and perspectives are proposed, attempting to seek suitable solutions and inspire new ideas for future research. In this study, the concept of passive condensation prevention for radiant cooling is proposed for the first time. It is aimed to release the potential of radiant cooling and provide alternative ideas for the design and application of radiant cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of night ventilation (NV) is to improve building energy and thermal comfort performance. The key to accurately predicting NV performance is selecting the appropriate convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) at different surfaces of the built environment. The current CHTC correlations used in building energy simulation tools are limited and prevent accurate modeling of NV strategies. The building thermal mass activation is also an important factor to influence the efficiency of NV. A series of dynamic full-scale experiments with ten thermal mass distribution schemes, four air change rates per hour (ACH), and two inlet air temperatures was conducted to derive the CHTCs at test room surfaces during NV in case of mixing ventilation. The results show that the existing correlations did not accurately predict the CHTC for most cases. Therefore, the new surface-averaged CHTC correlations with inlet temperature as reference were developed for different thermal mass distribution schemes and ACH. Installing the thermal mass on one surface can significantly enhance its CHTC and affect the CHTC at other surfaces. The mean CHTC of the test room was independent of the inlet air temperature but increased together with ACH and thermal mass level of interior surfaces. Finally, the presence and locations of tables had limited influence on the CHTC at interior surfaces but reduced the mean CHTC. • The heat transfer of night ventilation was investigated by dynamic experiment • The existing correlations did not predict the convective heat transfer coefficient well. • Thermal mass on surfaces greatly affected the convective heat transfer coefficient. • The display of furniture influenced its air distribution and the heat transfer coefficient. • New convective heat transfer coefficient correlations were developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]