Enhancing Building Resilience: Reducing Future Cooling Consumption Using Smart HVAC Operations in Existing Buildings

Abstract

In hot-arid desert climates, residential cooling loads account for 70% of total building energy consumption, and with projections of rising global temperatures, passive design strategies and traditional mechanical cooling methods face challenges of increased energy demand and reduced climate resilience. This research investigates the effectiveness of operational, active, and hybrid mitigation strategies, such as mixed-mode ventilation and adaptive temperature setpoints, in reducing the cooling consumption (kWh/m2) across two validated building simulation models of residential typologies. In addition, this study also assesses the viability of the proposed strategies in future climate scenarios targeting the worst-case scenario of RCP8.5 2050 and 2090. Preliminary findings reveal a major baseline disparity with semi-detached villas consuming about 3.5 times more in cooling energy compared to apartments. Further findings show the combined mitigation strategy of mixed-mode ventilation and adaptive setpoint capped at 31.5 to be the most successful at reducing cooling energy consumption, with reductions up to 100% in both building typologies across all climate scenarios. On a global scale, the existing building stock accounts for 80% of the built environment, while passive strategies can achieve high reductions in cooling energy, they remain invasive, costly, and come with additional material use and embodied CO2, and so this study considers old and less efficient buildings as part of the simulation, revealing possible reductions up to 100%. This strongly aligns with international goals such as SDGs 11, 12, and 13, and local goals such as the UAE Net Zero 2050 Strategy. Keywords: cooling setpoint, mixed-mode ventilation, adaptive thermal comfort, residential typology, desert climate, future climate, mitigation strategies, building energy simulation, operational strategies