An energy model of high-rise apartment buildings integrating variation in energy consumption between individual units

Building energy modelling methods have been required to be more accurate by taking into account variation in building factors affecting on energy consumption. However, modelling approaches for high-rise apartment buildings have often disregarded variation arising from individual apartment units. This study aimed to develop a building energy model of high-rise apartment buildings by integrating variation derived from individual apartment units. The methods were designed in three steps: identifying unit-specific heating consumption in different locations; creating a building energy model, based on the physical characteristics of apartment units and identifying the influential heating controls on heating energy consumption; and integrating a new set of polynomial model of independent heating controls in units and their interactions between floors. The result indicates that the averaged heating energy consumption of whole-building has a limited interpretation to represent the wide range of heating energy use in apartment units with different locations from 96 to 171 kWh/m2/year. The integrated set of polynomial model found that apartment units on lower floors need either higher set-point temperatures or longer heating hours than the probable heating control in the building-scale. Moreover, the accuracy of the model estimation is also improved to CV RMSE 5.6%.