Rainfall is seldom addressed in the analysis of climates for building design, usually neglected for building thermal performance calculations, and there is very little research about its potential cooling effect.

USGBC local communities around the country are helping cities jumpstart their building performance benchmarking efforts. And the results are pretty exciting. After four years of benchmarking in New York City, buildings there are using almost 15 percent less energy according to MIT professor David Hsu, one of the most widely recognized experts in energy benchmarking...

Houses designed to be energy and water efficient often do not perform as intended. One of the reasons for this is occupant behaviour. Rebound effects and lack of awareness mean that behaviour and practices need to be addressed as part of the strategies to reduce emissions in the residential sector. While the design is important...

The European building stock and energy system are at the initial stages of a journey towards becoming smart: moving from a centralised, fossil fuel-based and highly-energy-consuming system towards one that is more efficient, decentralised, consumer-focused and powered by renewable energy. The international law to limit global warming to below 2°C following the Paris Agreement puts...

This paper provides a snapshot of future HVAC in a net-zero world, and outlines some of the mainthemes from the workshop discussions such as: