ABSTRACT

Climate change and global warming represent new factors for consideration in building design (Hennessy 2008). Research undertaken previously (Thomas and Moller 2007; Moller and Thomas, Chapter 22 in this volume) has indicated that there are existing issues in optimizing heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system design in buildings. One factor in designing efficient HVAC systems is to ensure that the design conditions are as accurate as possible. This includes consideration of the urban heat island effect (Arnfield 2003), the effect extending well into the suburban morphology (Gokhale-Madan 1994; Gokhale 1997, 1999), which is expected to be accentuated under future climate change scenarios (Howden and Crimp 2008).