Energy and Buildings最新文献

{"title":"On-site investigation and comprehensive performance testing analysis of building envelopes in existing residential buildings in Shanghai","authors":"Xiangyu Yu, Tian Zhao, Shunming Gong, Zhuoyu Yu, Yi Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118393","url":null,"abstract":"With the slowdown in economic and population growth, China's residential market is shifting from incremental competition to stock-based development, making the renovation and upgrading of existing residential buildings a new priority. As one of China's earliest cities to adopt industrialized housing, Shanghai boasts a vast and diverse stock of residential buildings, serving as an ideal case study for existing housing in China. This research focuses on the thermal performance of building envelopes in existing residential structures. Following an “investigation-testing-validation”methodology, field surveys covering 50+ communities were conducted, and four typical residential units were selected for comprehensive performance testing. Key influencing factors—the U-values of building envelopes and area ratios—were further analyzed through quantitative simulations. The main findings are as follows: The thermal performance of Shanghai's existing residential building envelopes fails to meet local and national energy efficiency standards, with roofs and exterior windows exhibiting the most significant deficiencies. Indoor temperature trends show a positive correlation with weighted U-values. For top-floor units, the roof U-values have the greatest impact on annual energy consumption, whereas for non-top-floor units, the exterior wall U-values are the dominant factor. The envelope-to-floor ratio influences indoor temperatures to a greater extent than the window-to-wall ratio. Larger envelope-to-floor ratios lead to more extreme indoor temperatures. Under typical conditions, changes in the envelope area ratio have a less pronounced impact than variations in the U-values of roofs and exterior walls. Based on these findings, the study proposes improvement recommendations for building envelopes at both the residential and policy levels.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"7 1","pages":"118393"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149236091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy-efficient window coatings for sustainable buildings","authors":"Lina Shaker, Ahmed Alamiery, Naseer Ali Hussien","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118408","url":null,"abstract":"Windows are among the most thermally sensitive components of the building envelope and strongly influence heating, cooling, daylighting, glare, and occupant comfort. Energy-efficient window coatings provide a comparatively thin and potentially cost-effective means of improving glazing performance while preserving architectural transparency. This review critically examines the development, operating mechanisms, performance, building applications, implementation challenges, and economic considerations of static and dynamic window-coating technologies. Low-emissivity coatings, spectrally selective solar-control films, electrochromic glazing, thermochromic systems, suspended-particle devices, and emerging multifunctional coatings are compared in terms of emissivity, visible-light transmittance, solar heat gain coefficient, U-value, switching behaviour, energy-saving potential, durability, climate suitability, and commercial maturity. Advanced low-E systems can reduce surface emissivity to approximately 0.02–0.05, while spectrally selective glazing can achieve solar heat gain coefficients of approximately 0.20–0.25 while retaining useful daylight. Published building-energy simulation studies have reported potential total-building energy savings of approximately 10–38% for electrochromic glazing under specific climatic conditions, building configurations, baseline glazing systems, and control strategies. Similarly, simulation-based investigations of thermochromic glazing have reported cooling-energy reductions of approximately 15–22% in hot climates relative to specified reference glazing. These values represent context-dependent predictions rather than universally achievable savings. Laboratory experiments primarily establish material-level optical, thermal, switching, and durability characteristics, whereas monitored field investigations provide evidence of performance under actual operating conditions. Accordingly, the reported benefits are assessed in relation to their evidence type, building application, climatic conditions, and reference system. Case studies from different climatic contexts further demonstrate that coating performance depends strongly on glazing configuration, frame properties, orientation, occupancy, and HVAC operation rather than on coating properties alone. The review also examines economic feasibility, showing a broad cost hierarchy from low-cost surface-applied films to electrochromic systems and complete high-performance glazing replacement.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"164 1","pages":"118408"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149236095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A multi-agent actor-critic framework for smart home energy scheduling under uncertainty and user-centric constraints","authors":"Mohammad Tolou Askari, Javad Goodarzi","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118405","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents S-MAC-HEMS, a hybrid framework for uncertainty-aware residential appliance scheduling in Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS). The framework is designed with a per-household decomposition that supports scaling to larger communities, but the empirical evaluation in this study is restricted to a four-household configuration.The contribution does not lie in redefining established objectives such as electricity cost, peak-to-average ratio (PAR), and appliance waiting time (WT), but in integrating them within a scenario-consistent Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) and Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) framework. Each household is represented by an independent Actor–Critic agent with its own policy, replay buffer, feasible schedule, and Pareto archive. The resulting architecture is an independent MARL formulation in which household policies are learned separately while system-level coordination is provided through common uncertainty scenarios and periodic Pareto-guided synchronization. At predefined synchronization intervals, a constrained multi-objective Dream Optimization Algorithm (MO-DOA) generates feasible non-dominated schedules under the same uncertainty scenarios used for reinforcement-learning reward evaluation. Selected archive solutions are transferred to the corresponding replay buffers, a representative archive schedule updates the current household state, and additional Actor–Critic learning steps are performed. Household load, photovoltaic generation, and electricity price uncertainties are modeled using bounded Gaussian, Beta-distribution-based, and finite-state Markov-chain scenario generators, respectively. The use of common scenarios ensures consistent evaluation of learning actions and Pareto candidates under identical stochastic realizations. The proposed framework is evaluated against deterministic and uncertainty-aware comparison configurations, including MARL-only, standalone MO-DOA, and MO-SCA methods. The results show that S-MAC-HEMS provides an effective compromise among expected electricity cost, expected PAR, and user comfort while maintaining stable performance across independent uncertainty scenarios. Statistical significance is assessed using paired nonparametric comparisons with multiple-comparison correction and effect-size analysis.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"2 1","pages":"118405"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149236094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Short-Term Cooling-Load Forecasting and Chiller Capacity Recommendation with Physics-Enhanced Residual-Change LSTM","authors":"Zhenghao Gao, Nan Wang, Tong Wu, Shang Yang, Jian Xiao, Lunshu Chen, Junyao Feng","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118388","url":null,"abstract":"Buildings contribute substantially to global carbon emissions, and chiller plants are major electricity consumers in large public buildings. Cooling demand varies continuously, whereas chillers operate in discrete combinations of rated capacities. Accurate forecasting can improve capacity matching by integrating operating information with building thermal response. This study develops a decision-support framework combining an equivalent thermal parameter (ETP) model, a Physics-Enhanced residual-change long short-term memory (LSTM) network, and a capacity recommendation method. The ETP model constructs a cooling-load baseline from weather, simplified envelope dynamics, and a training-selected chiller schedule, with thermal-response coefficients calibrated using measured loads. The LSTM combines historical building management system (BMS) records with ETP-related information to predict changes relative to the latest observed residual and reconstruct the next-step load. Under the fixed within-month partition and historical-weather reference, five independent training runs achieved a mean 10-min-ahead RMSE of 117.3 kW on 6,699 common test windows, improving on a conventional LSTM and a benchmark that carries the latest measured baseline error forward. The forecast was adjusted by a validation-selected margin and mapped to the minimum feasible chiller-capacity combination. Under the same evaluation setting, mean recommended-capacity coverage across the five runs was 97.8% during public opening hours over the 56-day test set.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"1 1","pages":"118388"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Single Optima to Near-Optimal Insulation Ranges: A Life-Cycle-Based Method for Façade Retrofit Decisions under Decarbonising Heat Supply","authors":"Nadine Engel, Stefanie Gocht, Anica Mayer, Michelle Kahn, Amelie Brixel, Klaus Sedlbauer","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118387","url":null,"abstract":"Building retrofits are often assessed through operational energy, while embodied impacts of façade insulation are overlooked. This becomes critical when fossil heating systems are replaced by heat pumps, as lower operational impacts heighten the significance of embodied impacts from insulation.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"1 1","pages":"118387"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decoding the nonlinear impacts of a multidimensional urban form on carbon emissions under functional differentiation: Evidence from high-density Suzhou, China","authors":"Yuqing Wang, Chonggang Liu, Hui Guo, Dongsheng Yan, Shuyi Yuan, Man Li, Wei Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118395","url":null,"abstract":"Against the backdrop of global climate change and China's “dual carbon” policy, urban spatial morphology exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity and nonlinearity in its impact on carbon emissions across functional zones. Taking the city of Suzhou as a case study, this study integrates multisource data, including 3D buildings, points of interest (POIs), and carbon emissions, to identify functional zones on a 500-m grid and construct a 2D<ce:glyph name=\"sbnd\"></ce:glyph>3D spatial morphology index system. A random forest (RF) model combined with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) is applied to quantify the nonlinear and threshold effects of spatial morphology on carbon emissions. The results indicate that (1) carbon emissions exhibit a multicenter pattern with “core–periphery” coexistence, driven by population and modern services in the center and by industrial clusters in the periphery; (2) driving mechanisms differ across functional zones, with commercial emissions being most sensitive to the building shape coefficient (BSC),residential and public service zones being most sensitive to the population (POP), and industrial emissions being most responsive to the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); and (3) key indicators show clear thresholds, with the NDVI threshold falling between 0.4 and 0.5 and that of the BSC being ~0.6. Commercial emissions increase significantly once the POP approaches ~1860 people per grid, residential emissions increase sharply once the mean building height (MBH) exceeds ~26 m, and public service emissions plateau at 750 people per grid. In addition, the partial dependence plots (PDPs) of mixed functional zones exhibit a “high–value bias” toward energy-intensive functions. More broadly, the functional-zone perspective and threshold-based approach demonstrated in this study offer a scalable framework for other cities to inform the formulation of low-carbon development policies.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"13 1","pages":"118395"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy Vulnerability from a Building Perspective: An EPC-Based Assessment and Retrofitting Analysis in the Basque Country","authors":"Oihana Aristondo, Eneritz Onaindia","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118380","url":null,"abstract":"Energy vulnerability is increasingly recognised as a structural issue linked to the energy performance of the residential building stock. Conventional expenditure-based indicators may underestimate its extent because financially constrained households can reduce consumption below adequate comfort levels. This study proposes an alternative approach based on estimated energy requirements derived from Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). Using administrative data representing 11,902 dwellings in the Debabarrena region of the Basque Country, Spain, energy vulnerability is measured through Foster–Greer–Thorbecke indices. The analysis also evaluates the potential effect of simulated energy-efficiency improvements. It shows that the incidence of energy vulnerability falls from 12.08% initially to 7.37% after potential G-to-F improvements and to 4.23% when eligible G-rated dwellings reach an E-equivalent consumption level. These results indicate that targeted renovation of the least efficient dwellings could substantially reduce structural energy vulnerability and provide policymakers with a practical basis for prioritising buildings and areas for further rehabilitation assessment and support.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"9 1","pages":"118380"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A high-temporal-resolution interpolation framework for time-series downscaling based on time-domain decomposition and deep learning: A case study of building occupancy data","authors":"Yinao Zhou, Xuyuan Kang, Mingyang Qian, Da Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118394","url":null,"abstract":"With the rapid development of renewable energy, the coordinated operation of demand response between buildings and the power grid has become increasingly important. This requires the support of high-temporal-resolution building-side data. However, basic building-side data are usually collected or simulated at hourly intervals, whereas grid-side demand response often requires data at 15-min intervals. This leads to a temporal mismatch between building data and grid response strategies. Therefore, this research proposes a time-series downscaling framework based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT), convolutional neural network (CNN), and TimesNet, referred to as DWT-TimesNet, which aims to generate 15-min high-temporal-resolution instantaneous data from 1-h low-temporal-resolution instantaneous observations. In the proposed framework, DWT is first used to decompose the original time series at different time scales. CNN and TimesNet models are then used to generate the corresponding components, which are then reconstructed into 15-min high-temporal-resolution data. Building occupancy data are used as a case study. The cross-validation for repeated random splits results show that, under the premise of reliable peak timing characterization, the proposed DWT-TimesNet framework significantly improves the distributional consistency of peak magnitude and volatility factor compared with linear interpolation. The median Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) statistic of peak magnitude is reduced from 0.0714 to 0.0275, and the median KS statistic of volatility factor is reduced from 0.6016 to 0.0934. These results show that the DWT-TimesNet framework can better preserve peak-related and volatility-related characteristics in high-temporal-resolution building data. The single-zone cooling-load case also suggests that the generated occupancy series may be useful as an input for future building load and demand response analysis.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"73 1","pages":"118394"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling heat and moisture transfer in photovoltaic greenery canopies under subtropical hot humid conditions","authors":"Jianwei He, Qiong Li, Haotian Wu, Zining Qiu, Guoxi Zhang, Qi Li","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118334","url":null,"abstract":"Open photovoltaic-greenery canopies (PV-GCs) integrate elevated photovoltaic panels, underlying vegetation, and occupiable shaded space, offering a configuration for combining renewable electricity generation with microclimate regulation in hot-humid cities. However, design-oriented prediction remains limited because radiation attenuation, evapotranspiration, PV heat exchange, roof exchange, and cavity ventilation are vertically coupled and are not well represented by either lumped or high-resolution models. This study developed a vertically resolved three-layer model for PV-GCs, comprising a PV layer, an upper air-vegetation exchange layer, and a lower vegetation layer. Field measurements from Guangzhou, China, were used to validate under-canopy air temperature, relative humidity, PV temperature, and black-globe temperature, followed by sensitivity and parametric analyses of leaf area index (LAI), plant species (stomatal-resistance scenarios), and vegetation-PV spacing. The model reproduced under-canopy air temperature, relative humidity, PV temperature, and black-globe temperature with RMSE ranges of 0.84–1.36 °C, 2.50–4.09%, 2.34–4.87 °C, and 1.77–3.06 °C, respectively. Increasing LAI improved lower-layer cooling and moisture retention, lowering air temperature by 1.69 °C and increasing relative humidity by 5.51%, while exerting only a negligible effect on PV temperature. Plant species with lower stomatal resistance in this work enhanced evaporative regulation near the PV underside, whereas vegetation-PV spacing mainly controlled cavity ventilation, with approximately 0.3 to 0.6 m raising exchange velocity from 0.130 to 0.257 m·s<ce:sup loc=\"post\">−1</ce:sup> and lowering PV temperature by 0.51 °C. The proposed model supports compact, field-evaluated assessment of PV-GC design under hot-season daytime conditions in subtropical hot-humid environments.","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"414 1","pages":"118334"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thermography-based method to estimate radiative heat fluxes on whole body for local thermal comfort evaluation","authors":"Shohei Yasuda,&nbsp;Takashi Asawa,&nbsp;Tsuyoshi Ueno","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118338","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118338","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Radiative heat exchange is a key determinant of human thermal comfort, because it accounts for approximately half the heat exchange between the human body and its surroundings in indoor environments. In residential environments, insufficient thermal performance often results in the surfaces of windows and exterior walls having excessively low or high temperatures, causing local thermal discomfort due to radiative heat exchange even when the mean radiant temperature remains within a thermally acceptable range. Therefore, this study develops a novel method for estimating incident radiative heat flux (RHF) distribution on whole body for evaluating the effects of the non-uniform radiant environments on human thermal comfort. The method integrates spherical thermography with a digital manikin model and was validated using one seated nude thermal manikin in a climate chamber under four radiant conditions. The estimated RHF showed consistent agreement with pyrgeometer measurements at 19 validation locations. Furthermore, application of the method to a representative residential environment with lower insulation performance showed that the conventional evaluation index based on radiant-temperature asymmetry satisfied the ISO 7730 criterion, with a maximum value of 2.7 °C for plane radiant temperature (PRT) in the vertical direction. In contrast, the proposed method revealed a maximum equivalent radiant-temperature difference of 5.3 °C between body parts. These results demonstrate that the proposed method can characterize body-part-specific variations in radiant exposure that are not directly represented by conventional PRT asymmetry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"373 ","pages":"Article 118338"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149088125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}