Surrounding Physical Environment on Indoor Thermal Environment: History
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Yaolin Lin
,
Tao Huang
,
Wei Yang
,
Xiancun Hu
,
Chunqing Li

Buildings are usually surrounded by neighboring buildings, green plants, road surface, water body, sky, etc., all of which have an impact on the microclimate of the buildings. In turn, the changes in microclimate indirectly affect the indoor temperature, humidity, thermal comfort, and energy consumption of the buildings.

  • outdoor environment
  • indoor thermal environment
  • thermal comfort
  • temperature

1. Neighboring Buildings

The neighboring buildings have a great impact on the energy consumption of the surrounding buildings. Building layout and the ratio of the height of surrounding buildings to the width of the street (H/W) and façade albedo are the main influencing factors that affect the absorption of solar radiation and, hence, the indoor thermal environment and building energy consumption.
Lam [1] investigated the shading effect of neighborhood buildings of 120 commercial buildings in Hong Kong. It was found that under peak cooling load design conditions, the shading effects range from 25% to 31%. Through simulation on a normal office building in Hong Kong, it was found that the solar heat gain through the window was reduced by 14%, representing a 2% reduction in the total building cooling load. Since the central plant is oversized due to neglecting the shading effects of the nearby building, it consumed 1.2% more in annual energy consumption due to inefficient operation during part load conditions. Further studies revealed that the H/W ratio has an impact on the amount of solar radiation transmitted into the indoor environment and, hence, affects the cooling load and heating load of the building [2][3]. A higher H/W ratio results in a lower building cooling load, higher heating load, and higher lighting energy consumption. This is due to the increased obstruction of solar radiation, resulting in decreased daylighting and solar heat gain through the building envelope. Compared with no obstacle condition, when H/W = 1, the lighting energy consumption is doubled, leading to high building energy consumption. Visual comfort decreases with the increase in building height and density [4], which requires more artificial lighting to improve the indoor environment and results in more energy consumption. Ichinose et al. [3] studied the impact of neighborhood buildings on the cooling and heating energy needs of buildings in hot summer and cold winter regions in China. It was found that the reduction in cooling energy needs and heating energy needs is almost equal in Shanghai and Wuhan. However, in Changsha, Chengdu, and Chongqing, the cooling energy needs are reduced and heating energy needs almost stay unchanged due to little solar radiation in winter in the three cities. Liu et al. [5] also found a similar impact of surrounding buildings on cooling and heating energy needs in different community forms.
The layout of the neighborhood buildings has an impact on building energy consumption. The study carried out by De Luca et al. [6] showed that the indoor air temperature of the compact office buildings was about 4 °C lower than the spaced office buildings, which has a significant impact on the indoor cooling demand. Shi et al. [7] conducted a survey on 30 hospitals in the cold regions of China and found that different building layouts for the general outpatient department, the medical technology department, and the inpatient department can help improve building energy efficiency. Deng et al. [8] investigated the heating energy consumption of residential buildings in Jinan in the cold region of China under the courtyard, staggered, and row layouts. They found that the heating energy consumption per unit area of the courtyard layout was the lowest due to high wind resistance in winter, however, with the highest annual energy consumption. The compact layout results in poor ventilation and heat dissipation but also has a good insulation effect. However, the solar radiation in summer is high, leading to the highest total energy consumption in this type of building.
Table 1 presents the effect of H/W on the cooling and heating demand of the building. It can be found that the cooling energy needs decrease with the increase in the H/W ratio due to a better shading effect with higher neighborhood buildings. When the H/W ratio is low (<0.52), meaning building spacing is large or the building height is low, the neighborhood buildings have little impact on the cooling and heating demand of the surrounding building.
Table 1. Impact of building height to street width (H/W) ratio on cooling and heating demand.
Year H to W Ratio Area Cooling Demand Heating Demand Ref.
2011 0.5~3 Copenhagen, Denmark Decreases as H/W increases Increases as H/W increases [2]
2012 0.37~1.5 Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Arizona, USA Decreases as H/W increases Decreases as H/W increases [9]
2017 0.52~1.42 Shanghai, Wuhan, Changsha, Chengdu, and Chongqing, China Decreases as H/W increases Significant increases in Shanghai and Wuhan and small increases in the other cities [3]
2020 0.6~1.4 Boston, Massachusetts, USA Increases slightly when H/W < 1 and decreases rapidly when H/W > 1 Slightly decrease when H/W < 1 and increases when H/W > 1 [10]
2021 0.48~0.67 Jinan, China Not evaluated No obvious changes when H/W < 0.52 and increases when 0.52 < H/W < 0.67 [8]
Other than the building layouts and H/W ratio, the wall reflectivity of the neighborhood buildings also has an impact on the energy consumption of the surrounding building. For walls with low reflectivity, the solar radiation entering the building depends almost entirely on the sky view factor (SVF), while for walls with high reflectivity, the solar beam can be reflected multiple times, allowing the floor space to receive more solar radiation, thereby reducing the lighting energy needs [2]. Walls with reflective materials (cool walls) can help reduce their external surface temperatures, thereby lowering the indoor air temperature. A study carried out by Salvati et al. [11] showed that the east cool wall leads to a 0.6 °C decrease in the indoor operative temperature during the hottest day while a 0.2 °C decrease in the temperature could be achieved by the west wall. Battista et al. [12] developed an urban street canyon model and performed a simulation under the TRNSYS environment. They found that multiple reflections of short-wave and long-wave radiation by walls can result in an increase in the cooling demand of buildings in the street canyon by 50% and a decrease in the heating demand by 20%.
Based on the literature survey, it can be seen that the aspect ratio, density, and layout of the neighborhood buildings and the albedo of the walls of the surrounding buildings play important roles in the energy consumption of the surrounding building. Therefore, to improve the building’s energy performance, it is very important to take into account the building layout and reflectivity of the external walls in the early design phase. Furthermore, previous research work mostly focuses on their impact on energy consumption, but few studies focus on indoor visual comfort, which could be the direction for future research.

2. Greening

Greening can not only help reduce indoor temperature but also increase indoor relative humidity, which eventually has an impact on building energy consumption. Greening can be divided into urban green space and vertical greening. The former is to grow grass, shrubs, trees, etc., outdoors, and the latter is on the building envelope. For urban space greening, the canopy can provide shade for the building. Meanwhile, the transpiration of trees helps increase the relative humidity in the building. Pastore et al. [13] used ENVI-met to simulate urban space greening with different leaf area indices (LAI) and found that the influence of lawn on solar radiation entering the building is almost negligible while trees can help reduce the amount of indoor solar radiation. Greening can help improve indoor thermal comfort by reducing indoor air temperature by 3.4 °C on hot days through shading and blocking solar radiation. Using building-integrated vegetation combined with window replacements leads to a reduction in indoor temperatures by up to 4.8 °C. Morakinyo et al. [14] coupled ENVI-met and EnergyPlus to develop building models with/without tree shading to analyze the effect of greening. The results show that the indoor temperature is lower and the indoor relative humidity is higher for the buildings with tree shading due to the transpiration of the trees. The shade cover percentage and the solar irradiation received by the external walls of the building directly affect the indoor temperature [15]. The shade cover percentage not only varies with the variation in the solar altitude during the day but also is greatly affected by the distance between the trees and the buildings. The difference in the LAI and leaf area density (LAD) between evergreen and deciduous trees also has an impact on the changes in indoor air temperature due to different solar shading effects. Taleghani et al. [16] used ENVI-met to simulate the microclimate of a university campus in Manchester under normal conditions and the scenario of adding more trees during the hottest summer. The results show that an increase of 17% in tree cover can reduce the temperature by 1.1 °C.
For high-density cities, the cooling effect of greening is not obvious due to the lack of land for outdoor greening and the low sunshine level due to the shading effect of neighborhood buildings. Shade-tolerant plants should be selected, and the reduction in transpiration and photosynthesis caused by low sunshine should also be considered [17]. In this case, vertical greening is a good choice to replace urban space greening. Li et al. [18] evaluated the performance of different greening schemes in hot summer and cold winter regions in China and found that the use of linear green walls and modular green walls leads to significant improvement in indoor thermal comfort in the hot summer season and lower indoor comfort in the cold winter season. Furthermore, the green facade helps reduce the indoor air temperature in the hot summer season. However, it only marginally warms up the indoor air in the cold winter season, and the period of people feeling “very cold” in winter is longer than the reference wall. Djedjig et al. [19] integrated the green module written in Python into TRNSYS and performed an evaluation on the performance of green walls. Through simulation, they found that green walls could effectively reduce cooling and heating loads for La Rochelle with a maritime climate and Athens with a Mediterranean climate. Meanwhile, the west façade with vegetation performed better in reducing the indoor air temperature than the east façade. Zhang et al. [20] considered the net photosynthesis of leaves and the influence of the vertical green façade on the indoor and outdoor environment during transpiration. Through measurement, they found that the indoor operative temperature with a vertical west green façade was 3.6 °C lower than the one with a normal west wall. Through field measurement, Widiastuti et al. [21] found that green facades with different leaf coverage areas had different effects on indoor temperature, humidity, and thermal comfort. Greater leaf coverage area led to a lower indoor temperature. In addition, due to the transpiration of the leaves, the indoor relative humidity also increased, thus the indoor comfort was not necessarily improved. Similarly, Hao et al. [22] also found that a green façade with a green roof led to higher indoor humidity and a reduction in mean operative temperature from 0.4 °C to 2.1 °C. In addition, the fluctuation amplitudes of the indoor air temperature and relative humidity in transitional seasons were reduced by 39.3% and 28.8%, respectively [23], and the indoor discomfort hours were also reduced. In addition to improving the outdoor microclimate and indoor thermal environment, Viecco et al. [24] also found that plants on exterior walls and roofs could absorb outdoor particulate matter to improve urban air quality. However, a higher greening rate might not lead to higher absorption efficiency, which depends on a number of factors, such as building height and traffic conditions. In addition, trees and green façade could lead to a lower wind speed which increases the concentration level of particulate matter.
Greening can lead to a decrease in indoor air temperature, which has an impact on the cooling and heating loads of the building. Tree shade has been found to cause an increase in the heating load and a decrease in the cooling load [25]. Planting trees in different directions also has different effects on the reduction in the indoor cooling load [26]. Planting trees on the west wall direction has a greater impact on the cooling load reduction in summer, while planting trees on the south and east walls has more impact on the heating load in winter. Different tree species have different effects on the indoor thermal environment. Deciduous trees can block sunlight in summer to reduce indoor temperature and can allow sunlight to transmit in winter to reduce heating demand, while coniferous trees can help reduce indoor heat loss in winter [27]. Li et al. [28] compared the building energy consumption of a courtyard building after greening in Ningbo, China, through simulation using DesignBuilder software and smart meter reading. It was found that the simulated results differed from the actual reading due to the lack of vertical greening modules in DesignBuilder and the difference between actual occupants’ behaviors and the assumed occupancy pattern.
Table 2 lists the impact of different greening schemes on building energy consumption.
Table 2. The impact of different greening schemes on building energy consumption.
Author Evaluation of Greening Schemes Results Ref.
Akbari et al. 16 potted trees (8 trees with a height of 6 m and others with a height of 2.4 m) to provide shading for two houses Energy savings for the two houses were 47% and 26%, respectively. [29]
Donovan et al. The distance, crown area, and aspect relative to 460 houses The trees on the west and south sides of the houses reduce electricity usage in summer, while the trees on the north side of the house increase electricity usage in winter. [30]
Simpson et al. Trees around 264 houses Each tree reduces cooling energy consumption by 7.1% and increases heating energy consumption by 1.9% per year. [25]
Li et al. Adding horizontal greening and vertical greening to courtyard areas The simulation results showed that cooling and heating energy consumption decreased by 8.83% and 1.85%, respectively, after greening, while the electricity consumption recorded by smart meters showed that cooling and heating energy consumption decreased by 28.3% and 28.5%, respectively. [28]
Based on the literature survey, it can be found that greening can help reduce the indoor air temperature and cooling load in summer and, if properly used, might also help to reduce heat loss in winter. The transpiration of green plants also increases the indoor relative humidity level and thus, has an impact on indoor thermal comfort. Meanwhile, greenery in different directions also has an impact on the indoor thermal environment. All the factors need to be taken into account for outdoor greening. In addition, there are still some limitations when conducting field experiments and numerical simulations. For example, when simulating the impact of different greening areas on the interior environment using the scaling model, the impact of occupancy usually is not taken into account. The existing vegetation database still needs to be improved to include more plant species. When considering the impact of greening on the ambient climate of the buildings throughout the year, variations in LAI and changes in LAD over time need to be considered [13]. Both parameters have an impact on the solar shading rate, and the degree of influence needs further discussion.

3. Road Surface

Buildings are not only surrounded by other buildings and urban green spaces but also roads. The road surface also has an impact on the indoor and outdoor thermal environment as it can reflect the solar radiation back to the sky, building surface, and indoors. The higher the albedo of the road surface, the more solar radiation is reflected, which results in lower road surface temperature as well as outdoor air temperature and, in turn, reduces the cooling load of the building [31][32][33]. Part of the reflected sunlight is absorbed by the exterior walls surface of the building, which leads to an increase in the indoor air temperature [11].
The increase in the albedo of the pavement leads to a decrease in the pavement and outdoor environment temperature. Santamouris et al. [34] used a cool material with an albedo of about 0.6 for paving in a park in Athens with about 4500 m2 paving area. The outdoor air temperature and road surface temperature dropped by 1.9 °C and 12 °C, respectively, on a typical summer day, which effectively improves the outdoor thermal comfort. Synnefa et al. [31] developed a CFD model under the PHOENICS environment to simulate the temperature around a road in Athens using gray-white asphalt (albedo 0.55) and black asphalt (albedo 0.04) pavements. The results show that the average temperature at the height of 1.5 m above the road surface using gray-white asphalt pavement was 5 °C lower than the black asphalt pavement. Carnielo and Zinzi [32] conducted field measurements in Rome and found that under the same conditions, compared with black asphalt, the highest and average temperatures over the gray-white asphalt surface were 18.5 °C and 8.3 °C lower, respectively. The effect of gray-white asphalt (with albedo = 0.65), gray asphalt (with albedo = 0.4), and black asphalt (with albedo = 0.1) over the outdoor temperature were simulated under the ENVI-met environment. The simulation outcomes show that at the height of 4.5 m above the road surface, the air temperatures over the gray-white asphalt road and gray asphalt road were 5.4 °C and 2.9 °C lower than that of the black asphalt road, respectively. Replacing the conventional pavement with cooling pavement (with reflectance = 0.69) can lower the road surface temperature and outdoor air temperature by 2–4 °C and 0.3 °C, respectively [35].
The use of high albedo materials can lower the pavement temperature by about 15 °C in summer and 8 °C in winter, but the surface temperature is also affected by other factors, such as near-surface wind speed [36]. The experiments carried out by Wu et al. [37] show that with the same albedo, a higher wind speed led to a lower road surface temperature. The impact of high albedo materials on the decrease in the pavement temperature and ambient temperature varies in different locations [33]. For example, the increase in pavement albedo has little effect on the outdoor temperature in Cairo, where the use of concrete with an albedo of 0.5 can only lower the outdoor temperature by 0.1–0.5 °C.
High albedo pavement can lower the ambient temperature and alleviate climate change pressure. Many studies have also confirmed that cool pavement could help reduce the cooling energy consumption of buildings in summer. Through computer simulation under the TRNSYS environment, it was shown that compared with black asphalt, gray asphalt and gray-white asphalt could lead to peak building cooling load reduction by 7.8–10.2% and 14.6–18.9%, respectively [32]. In addition, the effect of the pavement material on buildings with heat insulation is not as obvious as those without heat insulation [32]. Aboelata [33] conducted a study and found that the use of high albedo concrete could reduce cooling energy in Cairo by 0.2% to 2.5%. Jandaghian and Berardi [38] combined the weather research and forecasting model (WRF), building effect parameterization (BEP), and building energy model (BEM) to study the impact of cool pavement on building energy consumption and found that using pavement with an albedo of 0.45 can reduce the energy consumption of the heating ventilation and air conditioning system (HAVC) by an average of 1 W/m2, compared with an initial albedo of 0.2. The increase in albedo could save 7% to 10% of cooling energy in the Toronto area during heat waves [38]. Santamouris et al. [39] also found that when the albedo of the road surface increased from 0.1 to 0.6, the maximum ambient temperature could drop by 0.4–1.4 °C, and the building cooling energy consumption decreased by 0.04–0.025% for every 10% increase in the albedo.
However, studies from some researchers have come to the opposite conclusion that a higher albedo of the pavement leads to more solar radiation being reflected onto the wall surfaces of the building. As a result, the temperature of the surrounding building surfaces increases and more cooling energy is required. In urban street canyons with large aspect ratios, i.e., deep or narrow urban street canyons, the influence of pavement reflectivity on the interior is small because only a small portion of shortwave radiation can reach the ground [9]. Qin [40] developed a numerical model to study the relationship between the aspect ratio and albedo of the pavement. It was found that only when H/W < 1 the solar radiation can be effectively reflected by the road surface, which is similar to the results found by Yaghoobian et al. [9]. Salvati et al. [11] found that the incident radiation on the building envelope surface increased with the increase in road reflectivity. Increasing the road pavement material reflectance from 0.19 to 0.5 resulted in the increase in incident solar radiation on the building surface by 14%, which led to an increase in the external wall surface temperature, and a 0.5 °C increase in the indoor operative temperature on the hottest day. Xu et al. [10] also found that when the aspect ratio H/W is low, the cooling load decreases with the increase in the road surface albedo, and when the H/W increases to a certain value, the cooling load begins to increase. Yaghoobian et al. [41] found that the overall building design cooling loads near artificial turf (AT) could decrease by 15–20% compared with other common ground surface materials (asphalt, concrete, and grass).
Previous studies have also shown that in some places such as Cairo [33] the road pavement has little impact on the indoor thermal environment. In such cases, the combination of greening and high albedo pavement materials can be effective in reducing the cooling energy need [42][43]. Shahidan et al. [43] compared the indoor thermal environment under current conditions and with trees of different densities and high-albedo material pavements. They found that ambient temperature dropped significantly by up to 3.5 °C and indoor temperature by up to 1.9 °C, resulting in 29% of energy saving.
Based on the literature survey, it can be found that more studies focus on the effect of high albedo in summer but fewer in winter. Meanwhile, the aspect ratio of H/W plays an important role in the reflection of solar irradiation. The optimization of the pavement albedo, H/W ratio, and combination with greening could be the focus of future research.

4. Water Body

Water bodies refer to the lakes, rivers, fountains, etc., near the buildings and are an important part of the built environment. The water body acts as a thermal mass to accumulate heat and maintain stable outdoor temperature. Meanwhile, water can evaporate and absorb heat from the surroundings, lowering the outdoor air temperature and increasing the humidity, thus improving thermal comfort in summer.
In the past, many scholars have noticed the cooling effect of water bodies on the surrounding microclimate. Murakawa et al. [44] found that in clear weather, the water in the rivers could help reduce the ambient temperature by 3–5 °C. Syafii et al. [45] found that solar radiation and wind speed have great impacts on the cooling effect of water bodies. Tan et al. [46] found that increasing the coverage of water bodies by 10% could reduce the average ground surface temperature by 0.42 °C and that the existence of water bodies could also increase the ambient humidity level, and the amount of evaporation was much larger than that of greening plants. Yang et al. [47] found that water bodies could not only lower the ambient temperature but also increase the surrounding air humidity and wind speed. Jin et al. [48] found that the centralized water body could lower the ambient temperature by 2 °C and increase the relative humidity by 5% within 10 m of the water body, and the dispersed water body could improve the uniformity of the surrounding microclimate. A better cooling effect and a higher relative air humidity increase were found on the leeward side, and setting the water body on the windward side was suggested.
Water bodies can lower the ambient air temperature in summer by acting as a natural thermal storage system and increase the relative air humidity through evaporation, thus indirectly affecting the energy consumption of surrounding buildings. Xu et al. [49] studied the cooling effect of a garden with a water body in Beijing using ENVI-met for simulation. The garden was divided into 92 × 92 grids, 2.25 m2 each. It was shown that the water body led to a heat reduction from 500 J to 1400 J for each grid [49]. Lower ambient temperature results in lower cooling energy needs to maintain indoor thermal comfort [50]. However, there are relatively few studies on the energy-saving effects of water bodies. The location, area, geometry, and surrounding built-up proportions all have an impact on the cooling effect of the water body [51]. In general, larger water body has a better cooling effect, and square and round water bodies help to enhance their cooling effects.
Based on the literature survey, it can be seen that most of the studies focus on the cooling effects of water bodies on the ambient environment, fewer of which focus on energy reduction. In addition, few studies have evaluated the impact of the water bodies in winter. Furthermore, the combination effects of water bodies, greening, and road surface have not been studied, which could be considered as a future research direction.

5. Sky

The impact of the sky on the indoor thermal environment depends on two factors. The first factor is the sky temperature, which is lower than the ambient temperature. The long-wave radiation between the sky and the building has an impact on the building’s energy demand [52]. Some studies considered the sky as a cooling source for radiative cooling, which can significantly reduce the roof surface temperature and building cooling load [53]. The second factor is the sky view factor (SVF), which refers to the proportion of visible sky above the observation point. A larger SVF also allows more solar radiation to reach the building enclosure, which affects the visual comfort and building energy needs for cooling/heating [54].
Studies on the sky temperature started very early. Some researchers focused on the development of clear sky models, which can be used to estimate solar irradiance, and others developed sky temperature models to study the radiation heat transfer between the sky and buildings. Antonanzas-Torres et al. [55] developed a clear sky model, which can be used to estimate the ground surface solar irradiance by combining the model with satellite images and cloud cover predicted by sky imagers. Up to now, there are over 70 clear sky models to predict solar irradiance under different sky conditions. Evangelisti et al. [52] conducted a review of articles on sky temperature from 1918 to 2019 and found that annual building energy consumption differed using different sky temperature models.
Visual comfort is a very important indicator of a healthy building. When the daylighting level is low, artificial lighting is often used, leading to an increase in building energy consumption. If daylighting is used instead, energy saving can be achieved without sacrificing visual comfort. The amount of sunlight entering indoors depends on the solar altitude and atmospheric composition (aerosols, precipitable water, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, etc.) [55] and SVF [55]. Wang et al. [56] found that cloud condition has an impact on the indoor light environment. Glare appears on sunny days but not on cloudy days. Natural lighting reduces the indoor light and heat environment, but on cloudy days there is not enough natural lighting to maintain the indoor light and heat environment. Using the curtains to avoid glare on sunny days lowers the indoor light level, while on cloudy days there is not enough daylight to maintain indoor visual comfort. De Rosa et al. [57] defined a cloudy day as there is no direct sunlight throughout the day, and the indoor natural illuminance comes entirely from diffuse sunlight. They used different INLUX codes to calculate the indoor natural illuminance under cloudy days.
Based on the literature survey, it can be seen that most of the studies focus on the development of sky models to predict solar irradiation and sky temperature. The combination impact of the sky temperature on the indoor environment and building energy consumption could be the direction of future research.

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/buildings13102600

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