INVESTIGATION OF HOTSPOTS INFLUENCE ON BUILDING ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN A TROPICAL REGION

Abstract

It is common for countries to face environmental problems such as urbanization, where infrastructure development has been very rapid. This led to an increased intensity of Urban Heat Island (UHI) which has severely impacted the economic and social system of countries around the world. Due to Singapore's rapid urbanization progress, it is experiencing the effects of UHI throughout its island. Due to the vast amount of development planned for Singapore, in conjunction with a tropical warm climate, the UHI effect will likely worsen over time. If there is no action taken to mitigate it, it will have an adverse impact on the wellbeing and health of Singapore citizens. Therefore, it is important to investigate other ways to mitigate UHI. Typically, the roof of a building and the pavement are the most exposed areas of an urban layout. There are times when certain structures of the building are exposed to the sun the entire day. Urban canyons, formed by pavements and building façades, inhibit the escape of radiation into the atmosphere. UHI results from the heat from solar radiation which is reflected on structures. When the sun is shining, it produces solar radiation which causes the structures to get heated up, thus resulting in the UHI effect. This present paper aims to present the state of art in terms of the identification of hotspots in an university campus in Singapore to establish UHI mitigation strategies. As we all know, energy is emitted by all objects. A Forward Looking InfraRed Infrared (FLIR) camera is stationed at the observatory to measures the apparent surface temperature of an object using infrared data converted into an electronic image (also known as thermal image). The thermal images of the buildings that are captured are subsequently saved in a backend server. The authorized user retrieves the thermal image from the backend server and evaluates them using a modified image segmentation algorithm to segment the image of the buildings and identify the hotspots on them. Afterward, strategies can be recommended to mitigate the hotspots uniquely to the building at the specific area where the hotspots are found to reduce building energy consumption. The effectiveness and resilience of the mitigation strategies can be used as recommendations for future application. The result introduced the different intensities of hotspots at various times of the day and the hotspot regions differ for different buildings. Customized strategies are recommended to tackle hotspots for different buildings. Although the research results were interesting, the analysis and results still have room for improvement. For example, the results can be incorporated with other factors such as thermal properties of buildings, weather conditions, surface temperature, the energy consumption of buildings to provide a robust strategy to tackle hotspots in buildings. If appropriate measures are taken to mitigate the effects, developing a sustainable urban environment is possible.