Analysis of the Influence of Variables Linked to the Building and Its Urban Context on the Passive Energy Performance of Residential Stocks

Several studies have addressed the impact of buildings on energy demand and consumption in recent years. Urban areas are set to become greater energy consumers and the residential building stock has a great deal. Energy efficiency regulations in buildings are recent, and most of the housing stock is far from meeting present standard and is responsible of a high percentage of global energy consumption. Thus intervention in the consolidated city gain importance and the promotion of more sustainable urban development focus on reducing energy demand by adopting passive energy strategies. This study is based on a previous work where a methodology for modelling the energy performance of existing residential stocks was developed (Braulio-Gonzalo et al. 2016). This model was based on a bottom-up approach (Swan and Ugursal 2009), where a representative sample of buildings was energy modelled to extrapolate conclusions to an urban scale. In the present work, the influence of a set building and urban parameters on the energy performance of residential stocks is analysed. To this end, an existing neighbourhood in the city of Castellón de la Plana (Spain) (Fig. 1) was selected as a case study and the residential building stock was assessed by dynamic simulation with the DesignBuilder (2015) and EnergyPlus software (U.S. Department of Energy 2013) as a calculation engine. The selection of a set of covariates on both the building scale [shape factor (S/V), year of construction (Y)] and the urban scale [urban block (UB), street H/W ratio, and orientation (O)] allowed its influence on two response variables to be analysed: energy demand for cooling (EDc) and for heating (EDh).