Framework to evaluate the resilience of different cooling technologies

As part of the EBC Annex 80 - Resilient cooling of buildings activities, the Thermal Condition
Taskforce was created, in April 2020. In coordination with all other groups and the Weather
Data Taskforce, two objectives were set by the Annex leader Dr. Peter Holzer. Firstly, to define
common thermal conditions to assess different cooling technologies. Secondly, define a
standard benchmark that can allow comparing the different cooling technologies worldwide.
Several meetings and discussions took place between May and November 2020 to identify a
systematic methodology for assessing the overheating risk in buildings and enable the
comparative evaluation of resilient cooling technologies. The taskforce succeeded to identify
common comfort criteria based on an existing overheating calculation method. Also, reference
simulation models for benchmarking were identified. This report presents the outcome of the
Thermal Condition Taskforce in the form of a methodological framework that can allow
performing a comparative evaluation of cooling technologies. The framework is meant to
provide a consistent and structured approach to evaluate and relatively compare different
cooling technologies on the building scale, taking into account comfort and not only energy
efficiency. Therefore, the framework was designed and tested in line with the Weather Data
taskforce choice of sixteen cities worldwide and involving IPCC climate change scenarios. The
framework is flexible and open, allowing building simulation modellers to run comparative
simulations in different climates and evaluating the Technologies investigated by the Annex.