The effect of the London urban heat island on building summer cooling demand and night ventilation strategies

This paper investigates the effect that increased air temperature due to the London heat island has on the effectiveness of stack night ventilation strategies for office buildings. Stack ventilation was investigated as the most suitable night ventilation strategy because this is largely independent of wind variations affected by local urban morphology. The paper presents a summary of the results of air temperature measurements carried out in London in 1999/2000 which were used to quantify the London Urban Heat Island Intensity. It then presents data for two representative weeks, one with extreme hot weather and one with typical hot weather in the centre of the London heat island and a rural reference site. These data are used to carry out a parametric analysis by using a thermal and air flow simulation tool specifically designed for offices in SE England. A reference and optimised office module are described. A comparison of the building types based in the same location suggests that during the typical hot week the rural reference office has 84% energy demand for cooling compared to a similar urban office. A rural optimised office would not need any artificial cooling and would be able to maintain temperatures below 24 °C. An urban optimised office would not be able to achieve this. A rural optimised office would need 42% of the cooling required for an optimised urban office. A comparison of the optimised to the reference office module suggests that an urban optimised office reduces the cooling demand to 10% of the urban reference office.