Optimization of COVID-19 prevention and control with low building energy consumption

COVID-19 is a global threat. Non-pharmaceutical interventions were commonly adopted for COVID-19 prevention and control. However, during stable periods of the pandemic, energy would be inevitably wasted if all interventions were implemented. The study aims to reduce the building energy consumption when meet the demands of epidemic prevention and control under the stable period of COVID-19. Based on the improved Wells-Riley model considering dynamic quanta generation and pulmonary ventilation rate, we established the infection risk - equivalent fresh air volume - energy consumption model to analyze the infection risk and building energy consumption during different seasons and optimized the urban building energy consumption according to the spatio-temporal population distribution. Shopping centers and restaurants contributed the most in urban energy consumption, and if they are closed during the pandemic, the total infection risk would be reduced by 25%–40% and 15%–25% respectively and the urban energy consumption would be reduced by 30%–40% and 13%–20% respectively. If people wore masks in all public indoor environments (exclude restaurants and KTV), the infection risk could be reduced by 60%–70% and the energy consumption could be reduced by 20%–60%. Gyms pose the highest risk for COVID-19 transmission. If the energy consumption kept the same with the current value, after the optimization, infection risk in winter, summer and the transition season could be reduced by 65%, 53% and 60%, respectively. After the optimization, under the condition of Rt < 1, the energy consumption in winter, summer, and the transition season could be reduced by 72%, 64%, and 68% respectively.