Informed Residential Retrofits through THERO (Thermal Resiliency Evaluation using OpenStudio-HPXML)
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Title
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Informed Residential Retrofits through THERO (Thermal Resiliency Evaluation using OpenStudio-HPXML)
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Description
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Of roughly 111 million buildings in the US, 90% of the buildings are single-family homes. Therefore, residential
building stock in the US consumes higher energy than commercial stock. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) has proposed ten residential retrofitting packages to decarbonize the existing residential stock in the
US. However, their study currently focuses primarily on energy efficiency. There is a catastrophic impact on the resiliency
of buildings and the safety of residents due to rising global temperatures leading to uncertain weather. This
research aims to evaluate these proposed retrofit packages across energy efficiency and thermal resiliency paradigms
during future, extreme weather, and power outage conditions.
To achieve this, a framework called THERO (THErmal Resiliency evaluation using OpenStudio-HPXML ) was
built on the foundational framework by NREL, which expands the competencies to run batch simulations for
indoor thermal comfort metrics. Simulations were performed on a sample of the energy models in Chicago (n =
500) and Phoenix (n = 200) for future, extreme, and power outage conditions. Three cases were considered from
the retrofitting packages: the baseline, an upgrade with enhanced enclosure, and an upgrade with high-efficiency
whole-building electrification. The indoor thermal resiliency was evaluated across the metrics of Energy Use
Intensity (kWh/sq. mtrs.), Time Not Comfortable based on ASHRAE 55-2004 (hrs), Heat Index Hours (hrs), and
Humidex Hours (hrs).
We were able to successfully interact with the NREL database, perform batch simulations and compute thermal
resiliency using THERO. The current studies show that for indoor thermal resiliency, an enhanced enclosure
upgrade performs better in Phoenix, while whole building electrification with high efficiency performs better in
Chicago, not only in the current but also in future and extreme weather conditions. However, in the case of a power
outage scenario, in both cities, an enhanced enclosure upgrade performs better thermally than a high-efficiency
electrification upgrade. Conclusively, this study establishes that indoor thermal resiliency and energy efficiency for
residential building retrofitting does not always lead to similar recommendations. Additionally, this project enables
the building science community to harness the potential of the rich NREL dataset while informing architects and
policymakers on comprehensive retrofitting solutions that make the residential stock more resilient to climate
change.
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Creator
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Kharbanda, Kritika
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Subject
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Energy efficiency
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Extreme weather
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Future weather
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Power outage
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Residential Retrofitting
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Thermal Resiliency
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Architectural engineering
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Environmental engineering
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Sustainability
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Contributor
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Samuelson, Holly W.
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Grinham, Jonathan
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Reinhart, Christoph
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Arsano, Alpha Y.
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Love, Andrea
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Date
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2023-05-17T03:55:56Z
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2023
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2023-05-16
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2023-05
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2023-05-17T03:55:56Z
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Type
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Thesis or Dissertation
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text
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Format
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application/pdf
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application/pdf
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Identifier
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Kharbanda, Kritika. 2023. Informed Residential Retrofits through THERO (Thermal Resiliency Evaluation using OpenStudio-HPXML). Master's thesis, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
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30493686
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https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37375196
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Language
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en