Abstract
Urban Building Energy Modelling UBEM tools usually adopt conventional weather data that do not consider the impact of the urban context on the local climate conditions, e.g., the Urban Heat Island effect. In this study, the influence of the use of urban microclimate data on UBEM results was investigated considering a set of 5 synthetic district morphologies composed of buildings with complex shapes. Each base district, characterized by 2 envelope compositions and 2 window-to-wall ratios, was simulated in both heating- and cooling-dominated climates. Moreover, for each district scenario simulations were performed with EnergyPlus using both a standard rural weather file and a microclimatic one generated with the Urban Weather Generator tool. Results were compared in terms of annual district heating and cooling needs and peak loads. As a whole, the microclimatic weather files showed increased ambient temperatures, resulting in an overall reduction in heating needs and an increase in the cooling ones, supporting the need to include microclimate in UBEM calculations.