EFFECTS OF CLIMATE-CHANGE ON COMMERCIAL BUILDING ENERGY DEMAND

Most of the studies of the impact of global warming on energy use have employed aggregated utility models and have found that global warming would produce about a 2% decrease in heating requirements per 1-degrees-C and comparable increases in cooling requirements. The one significant exception is a German study that utilized building energy models and determined that the increase in cooling would be somewhat larger, due to the effects of increased humidity with atmospheric warming. This study utilizes the DOE2 building energy model on a prototype commercial building and demonstrates that increased humidity could be a significant factor in total building energy use, particularly in the more humid parts of the United States. The study also demonstrates that the effect can be overcome with advanced building designs.