Inicio  /  Buildings  /  Vol: 10 Par: 5 (2020)  /  Artículo
ARTÍCULO
TITULO

The Energy Cost of Cold Thermal Discomfort in the Global South

Abdulla N. Alnuaimi and Sukumar Natarajan    

Resumen

The Global South, much of it in warm tropical latitudes, is expected to double its total energy demand by 2050. In addition to increased mean demand, greater demand for space cooling during external temperature peaks will exacerbate the strain on already fragile energy networks. Recent anecdotal evidence that a proportion of the increase in cooling demand is driven by cold?rather than warm?indoor thermal discomfort, suggests the imposition of an unnecessary cooling energy cost. Here, we investigate the impact of this cost on the expanding Global South using field data from four cities in India, Philippines, and Thailand. We observe that mean cold discomfort across the four cities is roughly 45 percentage points higher than warm discomfort, suggesting warmer indoor temperatures would not only lower overall discomfort but also reduce cooling energy demand. Computer simulations using a calibrated building model reveal that average savings of 10%/Kelvin and peak reductions of 3%?19%, would be feasible across the expected external temperature range in these cities. This suggests that more climatically appropriate indoor thermal comfort standards in the Global South would not only significantly counteract the expected rise in energy demand, but also produce more comfortable indoor conditions and reduce peak demand.

 Artículos similares

       
 
Helena M. Ramos, Modesto Pérez-Sánchez, Prajwal S. M. Guruprasad, Armando Carravetta, Alban Kuriqi, Oscar E. Coronado-Hernández, João F. P. Fernandes, Paulo J. Costa Branco and Petra Amparo López-Jiménez    
The world?s water infrastructures suffer from inefficiencies, such as high energy consumption and water losses due to inadequate management practices and feeble pressure regulation, leading to frequent water and energy losses. This strains vital water an... ver más
Revista: Water

 
Sergio Jesús González-Ambriz, Rolando Menchaca-Méndez, Sergio Alejandro Pinacho-Castellanos and Mario Eduardo Rivero-Ángeles    
This paper presents the spectral gap-based topology control algorithm (SGTC) for wireless backhaul networks, a novel approach that employs the Laplacian Spectral Gap (LSG) to find expander-like graphs that optimize the topology of the network in terms of... ver más
Revista: Future Internet

 
Nasour Bagheri, Ygal Bendavid, Masoumeh Safkhani and Samad Rostampour    
A smart grid is an electricity network that uses advanced technologies to facilitate the exchange of information and electricity between utility companies and customers. Although most of the technologies involved in such grids have reached maturity, smar... ver más
Revista: Future Internet

 
Liangtian Wang, Jie Zhou, Yuexin Chang and Hao Xu    
In recent years, electrochemical descaling technology has gained widespread attention due to its environmental friendliness and ease of operation. However, its single-pass removal efficiency could be higher, severely limiting its practical application. T... ver más
Revista: Water

 
Kaijie Huang, Chengjun Qiu, Wenbin Xie, Wei Qu, Yuan Zhuang, Kaixuan Chen, Jiaqi Yan, Gao Huang, Chao Zhang and Jianfeng Hao    
The paper presents a wind?photovoltaic-thermal hybrid-driven two-stage humidification and dehumidification desalination system for remote island regions lacking access to electricity and freshwater resources. By conducting an analysis of the wind and sol... ver más
Revista: Water