Development and visualization of time-based building energy performance metrics

In the face of climate change, and as building codes and standards evolve to promote increased building energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprints, it is also important to ensure that buildings, especially housing, can withstand prolonged power outages during extended periods of both extreme cold and hot weather to provide habitable shelter passively. This paper examines an approach for visualizing the impact of robust passive measures in multi-unit residential buildings by examining the ‘weakest links in the chain’ – the suites most susceptible to underperforming – in three climatic zones: Toronto and Vancouver, Canada; and Adana, Turkey. Two time-based and thermal comfort-related metrics are explored: thermal autonomy, a measure of what fraction of the time a building can deliver comfort without supplemental active systems; and passive survivability (also termed thermal resilience), a measure of the length of time a building remains habitable following the onset of a prolonged power outage during a period of extended extreme weather. A visualization of the results of parametric building energy simulations helps guide the selection of passive architectural parameters at the early stages of design to promote enhanced environmental performance and resilience