Impact of outdoor microclimate on the performance of high-rise multi-family dwellings in cold areas and optimization of building passive design

Abstract

In order to study the impact of outdoor microclimate on the indoor performance, two high-rise multi-family dwellings in two residential estates in Beijing were selected for one-year indoor performance measurement. The air temperature of different rooms and the corresponding cooling and heating energy consumption were measured. The simulation was used to obtain the microclimate data outside the corresponding rooms during the measurement period. Three main microclimatic elements, namely wind speed, solar radiation, and air temperature, were considered in this study. The measured temperature showed that the indoor performance of different rooms in the same high-rise multi-family dwelling has significant differences. Mean air temperature differences can reach a maximum of 8.2 °C in winter and 2 °C in summer. The outdoor microclimate also has a significant impact on indoor performance. For different rooms in the same building, outdoor wind speed and solar radiation are more related to indoor performance in winter than outdoor air temperature. In summer, outdoor air temperature was more related to indoor performance than outdoor wind speed and solar radiation. Finally, this study proposed a passive design optimization method for high-rise multi-family dwellings based on outdoor microclimate adaptation. The method was applied to optimize the north-facing and south-facing window-to-wall ratio of one of the measured buildings, and the optimized solution resulted in savings of 1.6%–6.0 % in cooling energy consumption and 6.1%–7.6 % in heating energy consumption compared to the original design.