Achieving suitable thermal performance in residential buildings in different climatic regions of China

The rapid economic expansion of China has been accompanied by environmental issues that have necessitated a national energy conservation strategy. This thesis addresses issues concerning the implementation of energy efficiency in the residential sector. The thesis focuses on how building developments in China can be improved to minimize non-renewable energy use for space heating and cooling. The literature review section addresses the specificities of the Chinese residential context. The rigid building form resulting from the application of the national building regulations, the popularity of large window areas and the variations in climatic conditions between the country's five climatic regions are particular aspects discussed in some detail. The fieldwork undertaken as part of this research project has involved a building in one of the climatic regions, where both winter and summer comfort conditions were studied. The analytic work has focused on identifying energy saving options that can be achieved by passive design means in each of the five climatic regions. Based on climate analysis the thermal comfort zone adopted for this research under the adaptive model ranged from a minimum of 14°C in the winter period to a maximum of 29°C for the summer. For the commonly existing 6-storey residential buildings maintaining dwellings within this range requires 35-1 05kWh/m2 dwelling floor area. The thesis shows that these can be totally avoidable by the application of climate-responsive passive design strategies. This research concludes that such measures can help achieve indoor comfort conditions all-year throughout the country. The original contribution of this research is to present the concept of climate-responsive energy- efficient residential building prototypes for China demonstrating a step-by-step approach on how China can make nationwide energy savings and reduction in CO2 emissions from the residential sector. The project research also discusses the Chinese thermal comfort criteria and highlights the main issues inhibiting the implementation of energy conservation in China's residential sector with the possible proposalsEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo