Microclimate data for building energy modelling: Study on ENVI-met forcing data

Abstract

ENVI-met iswidely used for urban microclimate simulations. However, the evaluation studies published so far show a wide variation of its accuracy. This paper investigates the ENVI-met accuracy for varying settings of (a) the meteorological forcing conditions, (b) input area size and (c) modelling detail. The model's accuracy is assessed using air temperature measurements of an urban canyon in London, UK. The results show that the impact of the hourly air temperature and average wind speed values used to force the simulation is very important. The Urban Weather Generator has proved suitable for generating forcing urban air temperatures when measurements are not available.