Towards codification of thermal resilience upgrades in midrise residential buildings: a Canadian archetype energy model approach

Extreme weather events are predicted to continue increasing in intensity and frequency, raising a serious concern about the thermal resilience and adaption of buildings to these events. A single residential archetype building will be chosen as the case study and evaluated in three locations across Canada (Vancouver, Ottawa, Charlottetown) using three historical extreme weather events. Two upgrade scenarios will be considered, a code-compliant (NECB 2020) and a high-performance building option, to compare thermal performance through hot/cold weather outages. By using a variety of outage events in cold-climate zones for an archetype building, this paper’s methodology offers a useful framework for building practitioners to assess the effects of building upgrades on performance metrics and improve building resilience. This research could eventually contribute to the development of codes by providing upgrade packages to create infrastructure that both mitigates and adapts to future climate change extreme weather.