HULCGIS: a new web-based tool for the accurate thermal simulation of buildings and districts

The assessment of the energy performance of buildings at a district scale is not a trivial task, due to the amount of time and information needed. The purpose of this work is to present a new tool for the precise thermal simulation of whole districts. A web application based on Google Maps is included to help the users define the geometry of the district. Then, an Excel tool uses a building energy simulation engine to obtain the hourly heating and cooling demands for a whole year. Any user may utilize the tool in an easy way to characterize any district around the world (as long as there is public data available). A validation of the procedure was carried out, obtaining satisfactory results. The method could also facilitate the process of suggesting improvement measures on a large scale, as well as the deployment of demand side management strategies for instance.