Forecasting the Impact of Climate Change on Energy Demand in High-Rise Office Buildings

The objective of this analysis was to forecast the energy demand of a tall office building situated within a mid-rise urban context under future climate conditions. The research employed energy simulations conducted using OpenStudio v. 3.9.0 and EnergyPlus software v. 24.2.0, with weather data in TMY format. Climate projections for the years 2050 and 2080 were derived from the HadCM3 model. The morphing method was applied to generate climate data files in EPW format for integration into the building energy simulations. Based on these future weather files, the building’s performance was simulated, accounting for the operation of HVAC systems to determine energy consumption for heating and cooling. The results were compared against a baseline simulation representing contemporary climatic conditions, constructed from data covering the years 2004–2018. The findings indicate that cooling demand will play a decisive role in the total energy consumption of the building.