On the influence of the urban heat island on the cooling load of a school building in Athens, Greece

• The cooling load of a representative school building decreases remarkably in suburban areas.
• Maximum temperature values have the most significant contribution to the building's cooling load values.
• Mean daily values of the air temperature and minimum values of the ambient air temperatures have less contribution to the building's cooling load values.

The present study investigates the effect of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon, measured in the Greater Athens Area (GAA), on the energy consumption of a typical modern school building. The energy performance of the selected building has been calculated using an accurate, extensively validated, transient simulation model for 17 different sites of the GAA, for the summer period. Calculations showed that the urban heat island phenomenon affects remarkably the thermal behavior of the school building, as suburban areas presented much lower cooling loads. The cooling load values fluctuated between 3304.3 kWh for the rural stations and 14,585.1 kWh for the central stations (for the year 2011) or between 3206.5 kWh and 14,208.3 kWh (for the year 2012), respectively. Moreover, the mean monthly cooling load values varied between 0.4–2 kWh/m2 for the rural stations and 4–6.9 kWh/m2 for the central stations, for the selected time period.Furthermore, a neural network model was designed and developed in order to quantify the contribution of various meteorological parameters (such as the mean daily air temperature values, the mean daily solar radiation values, the average wind speed and the urban heat island intensity) to the energy consumption of the building and it was found that the urban heat island intensity is the predominant parameter, influencing remarkably the energy consumption of the typical school building.