In Latin America, default assumptions and borrowed templates and methodologies are often used in energy modeling, resulting in models that might not represent their cultural context and leading to policies awkwardly fit to local practices. Policy-driving low-income housing studies in Mexico, for example, activated both heating and cooling in energy models even though less than 5% of the homes in the country have heating systems. This paper illustrates the importance of modeling local sociocultural habits and practices, and how this can affect design outcomes. Here, we modeled low-income housing representative of typical residences in two desert climates—Hermosillo, Mexico, and Copiapo, Chile—using EnergyPlus. Settings representing local practices in each region were tested against default values, including occupancy settings, regional construction systems, and importantly, HVAC settings related to partial conditioning. Their impacts were measured via variation in energy use, comfort conditions, and the payback period of design upgrades. Results demonstrated how certain assumptions can have a high “design significance”, a term we propose for inputs that completely change optimal design decisions, as well as the importance of considering thermal comfort in such decisions. Including partial conditioning, for example, resulted in at least double the payback period and discomfort degrees for design upgrades in 16 of 24 instances.

在拉丁美洲，能源建模中经常使用默认假设以及借来的模板和方法，从而导致模型可能无法代表其文化背景，从而导致政策不适当地适用于当地实践。例如，在墨西哥，有政策推动的低收入住房研究在能源模型中激活了供暖和制冷，尽管该国不到5％的房屋拥有供暖系统。本文说明了对当地社会文化习惯和实践进行建模的重要性，以及这如何影响设计结果。在这里，我们使用EnergyPlus对两种沙漠气候下典型住宅的低收入房屋建模（墨西哥的埃莫西约和智利的科皮亚波）。已针对默认值（包括占用率设置，区域建筑系统，重要的是，HVAC设置与局部调节有关。通过改变能耗，舒适条件和设计升级的投资回收期来衡量其影响。结果证明了某些假设如何具有很高的“设计意义”，我们为完全改变最佳设计决策的输入建议的术语，以及在此类决策中考虑热舒适性的重要性。例如，包括部分条件在内，在24个实例中的16个实例中，至少有两倍的设计升级回报期和不适度。结果证明了某些假设如何具有很高的“设计意义”，我们为完全改变最佳设计决策的输入建议的术语，以及在此类决策中考虑热舒适性的重要性。例如，包括部分条件在内，在24个实例中的16个实例中，至少有两倍的设计升级回报期和不适度。结果证明了某些假设如何具有很高的“设计意义”，我们为完全改变最佳设计决策的输入建议的术语，以及在此类决策中考虑热舒适性的重要性。例如，包括部分条件在内，在24个实例中的16个实例中，至少有两倍的设计升级回报期和不适度。