Energetic behavior of representative urban mosaics (La Plata-Buenos Aires-Argentina): the influence of intra-urban thermal variations

Abstract Simplified HVAC models for buildings estimate energy demand based on a global loss coefficient (G) and the heating and cooling degree days (DD). The DD are calculated, from citie's average temperatures, published by official entities. However different researches have recorded that the city affects the urban climate with thermal variations due to its morphological and material conditions. This paper analyzes the external thermal situations in different representative areas of La Plata city to determine the degree to which the theoretical energy is demanded for thermal conditioning at the intra-urban level are modified. To address the research, the external temperatures of ten urban sectors were measured. Then, the DD were calculated and compared with the official records, different zones were grouped by the k-means technique and, finally, theoretical energy demand was calculated. Results show that energy demand calculated from experimental measurements is overestimated in winter and underestimated in summer regarding the calculation from official measurements. Also, different territorial thermal distributions were found between winter and summer.