Assessing the cooling performance of tropical dwellings using multi-year future climate scenario EnergyPlus weather files: a case study of Brunei Darussalam

As climate change continues to impact the world, assessing building cooling performance under potential future climate scenarios is crucial, particularly in hot and humid tropical regions where occupant overheating and cooling system failures pose significant risks throughout the year. Despite extensive research on building performance in such scenarios, future year-on-year assessments have been largely overlooked, limiting our ability to capture the frequency and intensity of future extreme weather events. This paper presents an innovative method for generating EnergyPlus Weather (EPW) files from 2015 to 2100 under different emission scenarios using the latest climate models. The simulated EPW files are applied to a residential building located in tropical Brunei Darussalam. Results demonstrate that cooling energy consumption of existing tropical dwellings could increase by 225% by 2100. Furthermore, the utilisation of multiyear future EPW can provide more clarity in estimating future energy consumption base on weather trends and variability across different scenarios. This study fills a critical gap in the literature by enabling future year-on-year assessments of building energy performance under potential climate scenarios.