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Overheating of premises is a typical thermal discomfort issue in naturally ventilated primary schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Several design parameters were shown to affect the indoor thermal environment. A parametric study was conducted and based on several building performance simulations to investigate the influences of the individual design parameters on indoor air temperatures and the prevalence of overheating in primary schools. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the material of building envelopes, the openings, and the solar controls, in descending order, affected overheating occurrence. The findings could assist the architect in choosing which parameters should be prioritised in the design stage, which is particularly useful in renovation and retrofit projects.

In the last few years, the renovation and refurbishment of existing buildings have been recognized as one of the main strategies to achieve energy efficiency and sustainability goals. However, the current studies have mainly focused on the retrofit, life cycle assessment (LCA), and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of buildings in isolation without envisaging the impact of microclimate and the surrounding buildings on the outcome of energy simulation. Specifically, many energy simulation software needs to include the environmental responses when buildings are treated with outdoor conditions based on weather data from the nearest metrological site. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of microclimate on retrofit and LCC of a community of buildings rather than a single isolated building. For this purpose, a coupling method is developed to integrate building energy simulation (BES) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which exchange parameters on a dynamic time step basis using Envi-met to create weather files from microclimate parameters and use it on energy simulation through DesignBuilder software. Furthermore, this study interlinks the life cycle cost assessment and retrofit strategies on a community scale. A case study of Amman – Jordan, is selected in this paper by one a residential building with two floors and an area of 450. At the same time, the retrofit strategy is considered as implementing green roofs for community areas, which are implemented in the context around the buildings. In addition, this study calculates the net present value and the pack period regarding the life cycle cost study. The initial result shows that there is an impact for microclimate parameters on the temperatures gained on the building's envelope as a result of the effect of airflow through context parameters, which in turn affect the value of energy consumption used for cooling inside the buildings. Moreover, this paper demonstrates that using green roofs on one of the neighbourhood buildings will decrease energy consumption by 28% in the simulated time while the payback period is 9.5 years.

Global warming, pollution, and increasing energy demand have compelled electrification of the transport sector. Electric vehicles are not only an attractive and cleaner mode of transport, but they also possess the capacity to offer flexible storage alternative based on bidirectional vehicle-to-grid schemes. Vehicle-to-grid or V2G technology permits electric vehicles' batteries to store energy and discharge it back to the power grid during peak-load periods. However, the feasibility and economic viability of V2G is still a matter of concern and needs investigation. In this paper, the authors delved into the feasibility of V2G technology by analysing the real time-charging data of a V2G demonstration project named EV-elocity, located at the University of Nottingham campus in the UK. The authors analysed the charging data and trip-status data of two charging sites and put forward some insights regarding the feasibility of V2G and the behavioural traits of the vehicles. This paper will enlighten the research community regarding the feasibility and benefits of V2G in a real-world environment by analysing the charging/discharging and vehicle behaviour and reporting the opportunities and benefits of vehicle-to-grid technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]