Anthropogenic heat from buildings in Los Angeles County: A simulation framework and assessment

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2024.105468
• Publication Date: 2024-04-25T17:20:18Z
• Authors: Yujie Xu; Pouya Vahmani; Andrew Jones; Tianzhen Hong
• Keywords: Urban Heat Island

Anthropogenic heat (AH), i.e., waste from buildings to the ambient environment, increases urban air temperature and contributes island effect, which leads more air-conditioning energy use higher associated during summer, forming a positive feedback loop. This study used bottom-up simulation approach develop dataset of annual hourly AH profiles for 1.7 million in Los Angeles (LA) County year 2018 aggregated at three spatial resolutions: 450 m, 12 km, census tract. Building exhibits strong seasonal diurnal patterns, as well large variations across areas. peaks May reaches maximum 878 W/m2 within one several hotspots region. Among major components (surface convection, rejection HVAC systems, zonal exchange), surface convection component is largest, accounting 78% total building LA County. Higher attributed density, high percentage industrial buildings, older stock. While day, resulting are much larger night. During July heatwave County, (excluding component) daily increase up 0.6 °C minimum 2.9 °C. It recommended that reducing summer should be considered by policy makers developing mitigation measures cities transition clean while improving resilience.