Quantifying the Potential of Photonic Cooling to Improve Urban Microclimate

de Wit, Rosmarie and Zuvela-Aloise, Maja and Andre, Konrad and Bird, David Neil and Schwaiger, Hannes and Kolb, Florian and Peharz, Gerhard (2017) Quantifying the Potential of Photonic Cooling to Improve Urban Microclimate. REAL CORP 2017 – PANTA RHEI – A World in Constant Motion. Proceedings of 22nd International Conference on Urban Planning, Regional Development and Information Society. pp. 433-442. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

The observed warming trend in regional climate is expected to continue in the future, aggravating urban heat load as extreme temperatures are amplified in cities due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Beside causing negative health effects and reducing human comfort, this development results in an increase in urban air conditioning (AC) usage, again negatively influencing the outdoor urban microclimate due to AC waste heat emission. As cities are continiously growing (the population of e.g. Vienna increased more than 10% over the past 10 years), more and more people are affected by this additional anthropogenic heating of the urban canyon. The Viennese trend away from individual motorized traffic such as cars and towards the use of public transport, walking and cycling further leaves increased numbers of inhabitants directly exposed to excessive heat loads, highlighting the need for innovative solutions to counteract this problem. The exploratory project ‘Photonic Cooling’, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency through the ‘City of the Future’ program, aims at evaluating the potential of practical and cost-effective photonic cooling techniques for the cooling of buildings. The use of the photonic cooling technology instead of conventional AC systems minimizes anthropogenic heat emissions resulting from building cooling, hence minimizing the UHI development due to AC heat release and improving the quality of life of the urban population as a result. This paper focusses on the quantification of the potential of photonic cooling to improve the urban microclimate using Vienna as a case study. To estimate the future development of the UHI, the resulting changes in cooling demand and its effect on urban temperatures, a modelling approach is used. Simulations with the MUKLIMO_3 urban climate model are performed for the city of Vienna to determine changes in urban temperature for the 2021-2050 period relative to the 1971-2000 period. These results are then used as input for an empirical model to determine future cooling demand in terms of AC electricity use in buildings. Based on existing studies for other cities a relation between AC heat release and city temperature increase is established. Combining this with the modelled future cooling demand quantifies the influence from conventional AC systems on the urban microclimate, illustrating the benefit of using passive photonic cooling techniques to cover cooling demands instead.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Cooling Load Modelling, Commuter Comfort, Urban Heat Island, Urban Climate, Photonic Cooling
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
T Technology > T Technology (General)
Depositing User: The CORP Team
Date Deposited: 11 Sep 2017 16:08
Last Modified: 05 Feb 2021 10:05
URI: http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/368

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