A Study of Passive Design Strategy on Typical Village House in XiAn, Northwestern China

Abstract

Due to energy crisis and environment problems around the world, not only cities but also villages should concentrate on the energy saving strategy and environment protection. Northwestern China is in the northwest area of China with large amount of rural population. Less considered passive design on the village house in northwestern China influences life quality of rural people in northwestern China. XiAn is a typical city in northwestern China. Passive design strategy on typical village house in XiAn is analyzed in this research. There are mainly two types village house in XiAn; one type is traditional adobe house and the other type is new brick house. This research achieved two significances. The first one is that thermal performance between traditional adobe house and new brick house is compared. Results shows that traditional village house has better thermal performance than the new village house. The second significance of this research is that passive deign strategy on typical village house in XiAn is analyzed from house orientation, structure, insulation of the envelope, window to wall ratio and sunroom effect. Analysis results shows that each passive design strategy has its effect to improve the thermal performance of the village house.