Urban Microclimates and Energy Efficient Buildings

The challenges of a warm climate on urban buildings’ energy needs for space conditioning are discussed by assessing the impact of intra-urban microclimatic changes, also called urban heat islands (UHI). This article analyzes the results of a simulation study on the energy consumption required for heating and cooling a small office building within five intra-urban microclimatic conditions of the Chicago metropolitan area.

keywords: lake effect, wind, cloud cover, solar radiation, heating and cooling energy