TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluating the effectiveness of outdoor evaporative cooling in a hot, arid climate
AU - Dhariwal, Jay
AU - Manandhar, Prajowal
AU - Bande, Lindita
AU - Marpu, Prashanth
AU - Armstrong, Peter
AU - Reinhart, Christoph F.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Cooperative Agreement between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE , and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA – Reference 02/Ml/Ml/CP/11/07633/GEN/G/OO for work under the Second Five Year Agreement.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - In a previous paper, we presented a novel approach to validate the capability of the biometeorological index, Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), to predict the likelihood of urban dwellers to be outside in a public space for the heating dominated climate of Cambridge, MA. Occupancy patterns were recorded based on Wi-Fi data. The present study extends this approach to the hot and arid climate of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to evaluate the effect of outdoor evaporative coolers on resident presence in a public courtyard. Over a period of ten months, outdoor Wi-Fi access point data was collected in the public courtyard located on a university campus in Abu Dhabi. An analysis of the resulting MacID probes yields a population of 1200 regulars and 3800 visitors present in the courtyard at some point during the study period. Coincident UTCI simulations using ENVI-met strongly correlated with the number of regulars present during lunchtime both during times when the evaporative coolers were on (R 2 = 75%) and off (R 2 = 61%). Lunchtime attendance peaked for UTCI values in the thermal comfort range of around 24 °C during all seasons. The outdoor evaporative coolers were able to bring the UTCI down from very strong heat stress to between thermal comfort and moderate heat stress range. These findings confirm that UTCI can be used as a reliable environmental performance metric to support the design and preservation of comfortable outdoor spaces both in a hot and a cold climate, across a variety of cultural settings.
AB - In a previous paper, we presented a novel approach to validate the capability of the biometeorological index, Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), to predict the likelihood of urban dwellers to be outside in a public space for the heating dominated climate of Cambridge, MA. Occupancy patterns were recorded based on Wi-Fi data. The present study extends this approach to the hot and arid climate of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to evaluate the effect of outdoor evaporative coolers on resident presence in a public courtyard. Over a period of ten months, outdoor Wi-Fi access point data was collected in the public courtyard located on a university campus in Abu Dhabi. An analysis of the resulting MacID probes yields a population of 1200 regulars and 3800 visitors present in the courtyard at some point during the study period. Coincident UTCI simulations using ENVI-met strongly correlated with the number of regulars present during lunchtime both during times when the evaporative coolers were on (R 2 = 75%) and off (R 2 = 61%). Lunchtime attendance peaked for UTCI values in the thermal comfort range of around 24 °C during all seasons. The outdoor evaporative coolers were able to bring the UTCI down from very strong heat stress to between thermal comfort and moderate heat stress range. These findings confirm that UTCI can be used as a reliable environmental performance metric to support the design and preservation of comfortable outdoor spaces both in a hot and a cold climate, across a variety of cultural settings.
KW - Biometeorological indices
KW - Evaporative cooling
KW - Outdoor thermal comfort
KW - Universal thermal climate index (UTCI)
KW - Wi-Fi data
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U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.016
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.016
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060091526
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 150
SP - 281
EP - 288
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
ER -