The effectiveness of retrofitting existing public buildings in face of future climate change in the hot summer cold winter region of China

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the effects of retrofitting existing public buildings in the “Hot Summer Cold Winter” climate region of China, using simulation and a case study, to see how retrofitted public buildings perform in the face of climate change in the region. This area of China is one of the most challenging regions for providing occupant comfort in buildings, with high demands for heating as well as cooling, together with high humidity levels. The simulation results suggest that energy reduction of up to 40% with improvements to the building enclosure is possible by retrofitting current existing public buildings to the new Chinese National Standard for the Zhejiang Province.Requirements for combating possible increase in energy consumption from heating and cooling demands due to future climate change was also investigated, and it was found that by simply improving U-Values of the building envelope to the new national standards set for the Zhejiang Province, the effects of future climate change can be nullified up to the 2080s. Further improvements to having similar standards as developed countries such as England and Wales will have less significance and cannot nullify the effects of climate change from the newly retrofitted public buildings. However, this can be achieved by involving other energy-saving strategies and installing suitable energy-saving technologies for the region.