Co-simulation of a Rooftop Greenhouse and a School Building in London, UK

Recent findings suggest that hydroponic rooftop greenhouses could be more efficient when combined with waste streams in cities (heat, CO2, wastewater, compost). While there are established methodologies for building energy simulation and simulation of controlled environment greenhouses, there is a gap in our understanding of the combined performance. This paper addresses this deficit for school buildings in London, UK, where urban agriculture is of increasing interest. A building scale energy simulation of an archetype school building in London is developed in Energy Plus (E+) and co-simulated with a validated Greenhouse Energy Simulation (GES) model of a rooftop greenhouse. This novel combined simulation estimates the potential for heat recovery and reduction of ventilation demand in the classroom and enables evaluation of strategies to reach optimal environmental conditions in the greenhouse itself.