Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf den thermischen Komfort in ...

Impacts of Climate Change on the Thermal Comfort of Office Buildings
7. Introduction
Context
During the past years a general understanding has taken place throughout the scientific
community that, besides mitigation measures, additional adaptation will be required to
compensate the impacts of global warming which are already inevitable. Regarding the
building sector, this primarily signifies to ensure comfortable indoor conditions despite raising
outdoor temperatures without augmenting corresponding energy consumption.
Recently, global climate scenarios have gradually been downscaled to geographic
resolutions allowing for more precise forecasts of local climate conditions in the decades to
come. Hence, local developments have become predictable.
Urban heat islands are well known to generally display climatic conditions quite distinct from
surrounding areas, most pronouncedly detectable in higher ambient temperatures. It is most
likely that climatic conditions in urban areas will generally further deteriorate due to climate
change.
Offices generally display raised internal loads due to both high rates of occupancy and
significant density of technical equipment, likewise resulting in heat production. At the same
time office workers strongly rely on comfortable conditions to be able to perform complex
tasks. Offices are especially prone to overheating and consequently to active cooling
requirements;
Strategies for a reduction in energy demand in buildings generally aim at primarily reducing
either heat losses (in winter) or gains (in summer), thereby minimizing efforts for heating and
cooling respectively. Only building concepts heeding this principle may successfully harness
energy of renewable sources for covering the remaining and, thus reduced, energy demand
for both modes of conditioning.
A high degree of attention has to be attributed to users’ acceptance of thermal indoor
conditions as this directly triggers reactions on their side. Which degree of influence are
users provided upon their own environment? How do they tend to handle competing
requirements of, say, day lighting and shading? Will users’ behaviour change under climate
change’s influence? If so, in which way and to which extend? This study tried to find some
preliminary answers to concerns of users’ behaviour.
Goals
This study aimed to investigate impacts of climate change on energy consumption and
thermal comfort in office rooms. Conventionally, these two factors are directly linked:
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