A clustering method with target supervision for the thermal climate division of residential buildings in the Hot Summer and Cold Winter Area of China

Abstract

Aiming at the problem of climate diversity in the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) area in China, an objective clustering method of the climate zoning for building thermal design guided by the target building load is proposed. Guided by the load, zone indexes with weights were established. In addition, this study proposes the least controversial estimation model for selecting the most appropriate hierarchical clustering criterion. Then, the climate zoning of the HSCW area is carried out, and three climate zones are obtained: the cold transition (CT) zone, the hot summer and cold winter core (HSCWC) zone, and the hot summer and warm winter transition (HSWWT) zone. It can be seen from the climate zoning results that the climate distribution in this area is highly related to the terrain distribution. Finally, according to the typical residential buildings in this area, the differential design of the building envelope thermal parameters is determined based on the different climate zones. The simulation results show that compared with the non-differential design, the annual cumulative building load per unit area of residential buildings in the CT zone is reduced by 17.1% on average and that in the HSWWT zone is reduced by 7.3% on average. This also confirms the significance of climate zoning for building energy conservation, and the study findings are informative for policymakers.