Browsing by Author "Lopez-Guerrero, Rafael E."

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    How do urban heat islands affect the thermo-energy performance of buildings?
    (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2022) Lopez-Guerrero, Rafael E.; Verichev, Konstantin; Moncada-Morales, Guillermo A.; Carpio, Manuel
    Cities occupy 3% of the surface of the planet, but account for 60-80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions. Likewise, buildings consume 35% of the energy and emit 38% of global greenhouse gases. Cities can aggravate such problems further by generating the phenomenon of urban heat islands (UHI). Few studies have evaluated the state of the art in UHIs' influence on buildings' energy performance, so the present research aims to analyze the main studies evaluating the thermo-energy behavior of buildings subjected to UHI. This was done with a systematic literature review and a scientific mapping of the publications present in Web of Science until 2021. 100 articles were selected for analysis in this review. The results point to an important evolution in the study of parameters affecting urban buildings' performance, in addition to the analysis of different urban land uses as a strategy to sectorize UHI. Such scientific evolution is analyzed and discussed in four-time segments. Fragmentation on building cooling loads and the energy penalty index derived from UHI are discussed, resulting in an average cooling penalty of 6.63 kWh/m2/y/degrees C and 3.81 kWh/m2/y/degrees C, for residential and office use respectively. This study presents limitations and proposes applications for the use of this index, as well as prospects for future studies and main research gaps in the area.
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    Optimizing urban housing design: Improving thermo-energy performance and mitigating heat emissions from buildings - A Latin American case study
    (2024) Lopez-Guerrero, Rafael E.; Cruz, Alexandre Santana; Hong, Tianzhen; Carpio, Manuel
    This study investigates the influence of urban heat islands (UHI) on buildings and explores passive design strategies to improve thermo-energy performance while mitigating heat emissions into the urban environment. Concentrating on Latin American cities, the research conducts an intra-urban and climate-related analysis in two scenarios: naturally ventilated and equipped with an HVAC system. The intra-urban analysis considers socioeconomic disparities and diverse urban zones, while the climate-related analysis covers five different cities. This analysis utilizes machine learning models combined with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) for optimization, along with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for suitable solution selection. The results reveal potential reductions of energy loads, discomfort hours, and heat emissions, ranging from 2 % to nearly 120 %, depending on the case or scenario evaluated. The Pareto front varieties are discussed, offering design recommendations for addressing housing disparities and optimizing urban zones or cities. The findings suggest that newer building energy standards might underestimate urban warming in historically cold climates. Additionally, shifting toward HVAC use in residential areas could lead to new socioeconomic and environmental issues. This underscores the need for holistic building design that integrates balanced urban planning considerations to mitigate urban overheating.