Evaluation of the Summer Overheating Phenomenon in Reinforced Concrete and Cross Laminated Timber Residential Buildings in the Cold and Severe Cold Regions of China

Haibo Guo, Lu Huang, Wenjie Song, Xinyue Wang, Hongnan Wang and Xinning Zhao
Additional contact information
Haibo Guo: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Lu Huang: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Wenjie Song: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Xinyue Wang: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Hongnan Wang: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Xinning Zhao: School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-25

Abstract: As the climate changed in recent years, an increase in summer indoor temperatures in severe cold and cold regions of China has started to affect thermal comfort. However, the local design standard for energy efficiency does not recognize this phenomenon. This paper reports the potential overheating phenomenon in residential buildings and examines the rationale for the current thermal designs adopted in severe cold and cold regions of China. In this study, the two most commonly used building materials, reinforced concrete (RC) and cross laminated timber (CLT), are used separately in the design of an 18-story residential building envelope located in six different cities in the severe cold and cold regions. The energy consumption and indoor operative temperatures during the operation of these buildings are simulated using Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IES VE). The results demonstrate that both the RC and the CLT buildings experience varying degrees of overheating in any climate subregion. The CLT buildings have longer overheating hours compared to the RC buildings, especially in the cold regions. The results also indicate that for apartments on higher stories, the cooling energy consumption and indoor temperature also increase gradually. The research results suggest that the local design standard for energy efficiency needs to be adjusted by adding thermal design methods for summer to reduce the periods of overheating.

Keywords: overheating phenomenon; cross laminated timber (CLT); energy consumption; operative temperature; residential buildings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (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/1996-1073/13/23/6305/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6305/ (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:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:23:p:6305-:d:453335

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

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