Analysis of the Indoor Thermal Environment and Passive Energy-Saving Optimization Design of Rural Dwellings in Zhalantun, Inner Mongolia, China

Teng Shao, Wuxing Zheng and Hong Jin
Additional contact information
Teng Shao: School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710000, China
Wuxing Zheng: School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710000, China
Hong Jin: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150000, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-34

Abstract: Zhalantun city is located in a severely cold region of China. The cold climate and long winter bring challenges to the energy-saving design of rural dwellings in this area, while the poor economic conditions restrict the application of energy-saving technology. This paper aims to propose an optimal combination of passive design parameters by investigating, testing, and analyzing simulations of Zhalantun rural dwellings, which have a particular architectural pattern. Field measurements during winter show that the indoor temperature of a traditional house is low and fluctuates greatly, and the inner surface is prone to easy condensation. Through thermal comfort surveys, neutral and acceptable temperature ranges were obtained to provide indoor calculation parameters for an energy-saving design. Numerical simulations of heating energy consumption were conducted on the typical building models using DesignBuilder. The influence of different design factors on energy consumption was evaluated. Orthogonal experiments were designed to optimize a series of design parameter combinations to reduce the energy consumption of Zhalantun rural houses and to determine the sequence and significance of the effect of these design factors on energy consumption. Results show that the optimal parameter combination based on orthogonal experiments can obviously reduce energy consumption and have better economic benefits without considering mechanical methods. This can provide a basis for improved energy-saving designs and indoor thermal environments in such rural dwellings.

Keywords: severe cold region; rural dwellings; energy-saving design; indoor thermal environment; orthogonal experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1103/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1103/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1103-:d:316240

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().