Exemplary project of green cave dwellings in Loess Plateau

Abstract

The total annual energy consumption of people in rural areas in China is about 190 million tons of standard coal, and is still growing rapidly with the improvement of living standards. The reduction of this energy consumption is a key issue in China’s sustainable development. Focusing on the energy conservation of cave dwellings in the Loess Plateau, this paper aims to create a new prototype of cave dwelling that not only satisfies the requirements of the modern life of the residents but also inherits the energy-efficiency of traditional cave dwellings. For this purpose, a model cave dwelling is built at Zaoyuan Village, a cave-dwelling community in Yan’an, Shaanxi Province. In this cave dwelling, modern building energy efficiency principles and strategies such as natural ventilation, natural lighting, passive solar heating and earth cooling method are adopted. From the testing and subjective survey, it can be concluded that the new cave dwelling inherits the advantages of the traditional ones and has excellent performance in energy-efficiency, thermal comfort, and natural lighting.