Abstract
The object of this article is to investigate the influence of thermal performance of envelopes in shallow-buried buildings on energy consumption for different climate zones of China. For the purpose of this study, an effective building energy simulation tool (DeST) developed by Tsinghua University was chosen to model the heat transfer in underground buildings. Based on the simulative results, energy consumption for heating and cooling for the whole year was obtained. The results showed that the relationship between energy consumption and U-value of envelopes for underground buildings is different compared with above-ground buildings: improving thermal performance of exterior walls cannot reduce energy consumption, on the contrary, may result in more energy cost. Besides, it is can be derived that optimized U-values of underground building envelopes vary with climate zones of China in this study. For severe cold climate zone, the optimized U-value of underground building envelopes is 0.8W/(m 2 ·K); for cold climate zone, the optimized U-value is 1.5W/(m 2 ·K); for warm climate zone, the U-value is 2.0W/(m 2 ·K).
Highlights
The global contribution from buildings towards energy consumption has steadily increased with urbanization ([1])
The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of thermal performance of envelopes on energy consumption for underground buildings
The effect of envelope thermal performance on energy consumption for shallow-buried buildings in different climate zones of China was investigated in this paper
Summary
The global contribution from buildings towards energy consumption has steadily increased with urbanization ([1]). Underground building is one of big energy consumer and has significant impacts on energy consumption ([2]). The optimization design of energy saving for buildings below ground is extremely important. Building envelope features considerably affect the energy efficiency of buildings ([3], [4]). For above-ground buildings, the reduction of energy consumption could be generated by improving thermal performance of the envelopes. Underground buildings are more advantageous for their better capacity of heat storage, heat stability and smaller variation of temperature ([5]). The heat transfer through underground building envelopes maybe different compared with above-ground buildings
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