A quantitative analysis of the impact of residential cluster layout on building heating energy consumption in cold IIB regions of China

Abstract

Residential heating energy consumption in China accounts for about 34% of the total building operation energy consumption in the country. The layout pattern of residential clusters is one of the most critical factors affecting building heating energy consumption, yet few scholars have studied the layout of residential clusters in a quantitative way. This paper takes Jinan, a typical city in cold region IIB of China, as an example, to quantify and analyse the residential layout parameters related to heating energy consumption: group layout, building orientation and building spacing; ECOTECT and HTB2 are used to model and simulate the energy consumption of the three types of layout residential groups selected for the study, and the relationship between residential group layout parameters and residential heating energy consumption is analysed based on multiple linear regression analysis. The relationship between residential group layout parameters and residential heating energy consumption was analysed based on multiple linear regression analysis. The study shows that, on the premise of ensuring the same building density, the group layout has the greatest influence on the building energy consumption, and the courtyard layout has lower heating energy consumption compared to the row and staggered layout; on this basis, the influence of building orientation and building spacing on heating energy consumption is discussed. The study shows that increasing the spacing between buildings to meet the daylight spacing will reduce energy consumption by 4% and that a 15° shift to the west will reduce energy consumption by 5%. This result confirms the importance of cluster layout in terms of heating energy consumption and urban energy efficiency in cities in cold regions.