Cooling energy evaluation for high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong

Abstract

Based on the design of a typical high-rise public housing block in Hong Kong, the dependence of space cooling loads of residential flats on the constructions of external walls and partitions, and the location of thermal insulation layer in the walls and partitions, was studied by detailed simulation. The results show that insulating the envelope and the partitions would be effective in reducing the yearly space cooling load, by up to 38%, but could either increase (by up to 19%) or reduce (by up to 16%) the peak cooling demand, depending on the number and positions of insulation layers in the walls. Reducing the thermal capacity of the envelope and partitions (e.g. by reducing their thickness) would lead to large increases in the peak cooling demand, by more than 60% in the extreme case.