Increasing urban overheating risk from cooling decarbonisation by heat pumps
This eight month project was led by Professor Zhiwen Luo from the University of Cardiff.
This study uses the urban land surface model ‘Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme’ (SUEWS) and building energy simulation tool ‘EnergyPlus’ to explore the impacts of air-source heat pump cooling on both outdoor and indoor overheating risks within an idealised London neighbourhood setting under future climate scenarios.
The research focused on a UK detached house archetype with and without air-source heat pump. This dwelling is assumed to be occupied by an elderly couple present throughout the day. The modelled neighbourhood comprises identical houses covering a plan area fraction of 0.5. For the meteorological context, we employed UKCP09’s 2050 typical meteorological year weather data for London under a medium emissions scenario.
Other team members were: Dr Xiaoxiong Xie, Professor Carlos Ugalde-Loo, Cardiff University, Dr Matt Bailey-Ross, Plymouth University, Dr Xinfang Wang, Birmingham University and Professor Sue Grimmond, University of Reading
The final report can be found here: Cooling decarbonisation report