# Reinforcement Learning (RL) Meets Urban Climate Modeling: Investigating the Efficacy and Impacts of RL-Based HVAC Control

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07045 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07045/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL for energy, networks and operations, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- First posted on arXiv 11 May 2025.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL for energy, networks and operations](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-energy-networks-and-operations/)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [FedRAIN-Lite: Federated Reinforcement Algorithms for Improving Idealised Numerical Weather and Climate Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.14315/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Reinforcement learning (RL)-based heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) control has emerged as a promising technology for reducing building energy consumption while maintaining indoor thermal comfort. However, the efficacy of such strategies is influenced by the background climate and their implementation may potentially alter both the indoor climate and local urban climate. This study proposes an integrated framework combining RL with an urban climate model that incorporates a building energy model, aiming to evaluate the efficacy of RL-based HVAC control across different background climates, impacts of RL strategies on indoor climate and local urban climate, and the transferability of RL strategies across cities. Our findings reveal that the reward (defined as a weighted combination of energy consumption and thermal comfort) and the impacts of RL strategies on indoor climate and local urban climate exhibit marked variability across cities with different background climates. The sensitivity of reward weights and the transferability of RL strategies are also strongly influenced by the background climate. Cities in hot climates tend to achieve higher rewards across most reward weight configurations that balance energy consumption and thermal comfort, and those cities with more varying atmospheric temperatures demonstrate greater RL strategy transferability. These findings underscore the importance of thoroughly evaluating RL-based HVAC control strategies in diverse climatic contexts. This study also provides a new insight that city-to-city learning will potentially aid the deployment of RL-based HVAC control.