Temperature and humidity characteristics of residential buildings in northern China

Abstract

Buildings are one of the typical underlying surfaces of cities, but the study of hydrological effects of buildings is a weak link in urban hydrological research. Indoor temperature and humidity are important embodiments of the hydrological effect of building water activity. Beijing, as the capital of China, is selected as the representative research area in north China. The variation characteristics of temperature and humidity of residential buildings, as well astheir relationship with each other, are analyzed through experimental monitoring. The result showsthat human water use activities in buildings will increase indoor humidity. The indoor humidity is higher than the outdoor humidity in the sunny days of spring, summer andwinter, while it is lower than the outdoor humidity through rainy days and the whole autumn. Both indoor and outdoor humidityreach peak and nearly the same at night, but the difference between the indoor and outdoor humidity is obvious during the daytime. Based on the results we can draw the conclusion that (1) indoor water use activities canproduce obvious water vapor diffusion; (2) In northern China, the indoor humidity of the residential buildings is higher than the outdoor humidity, and will flow to outdoors during most sunny days; (3) among all the types of the rooms in the resendital building, bathroom is the largest contributor to water vapor dissipation. We suggest that water vapor dissipation in buildings should be taken into account in the study of evaporation in urban areas since it may profoundly affect the urban hydrological cycle.