Characteristics Of Building Envelope Research Articles

Energy audit based identification of energy efficiency improvement opportunities for existing houses

Energy efficiency in the building has two dimensions; efficient use of energy resources and energy conservation. Energy-efficient houses play a critical role in energy conservation and achieving sustainable built environment goals. The energy efficiency of a house depends on its building envelope (design, orientation, and energy properties of construction material) and operational characteristics appliance efficiency, energy consumption patterns). Rather than merely ensuring new houses are energy-efficient, it is vital to energy retrofit existing houses. Energy audits can assist in evaluating the energy efficiency of existing houses and identify improvement measures. The main objectives of this study were to identify efficiency improvement opportunities through an energy audit of houses and apartments in Karachi. A detailed energy audit checklist was prepared using literature, standards, expert review, and code requirements. Data was collected through physical and owner-assisted virtual audits of 58 houses in six districts of Karachi. Architectural plans, information about doors, windows, air ducts, thermal images, historical data, and material properties were collected. Audit tools included; an anemometer and thermal imagining camera during physical audits. Android applications were used during owner-assisted audits. Data were analyzed for developing descriptive graphs, U and R-values, Pareto charts, and district-wise mapping of energy properties of the material. As a result, energy improvement opportunities were proposed. These are focused on building envelope aspects, including; window orientation, minimizing air infiltration, and using heatresistant paint. Improvement measures were confirmed through thermal imaging of selected buildings.

Evaluating energy retrofit strategies in enhancing operational performance of mosques: A case study of Al-Imam Al-Hussein Mosque

Mosques are unique in terms of architectural design and operational efficiency. Architectural Design, building envelope characteristics, intermittent operating schedules, and occupancy patterns all impact the performance. Managing these factors poses challenges regarding reducing energy consumption and simultaneously achieving the occupants' thermal and visual comfort, especially in hot, arid climatic conditions. Also, the potential benefits of daylighting in reducing energy consumption in mosque buildings need to be addressed. Accordingly, this study evaluates the impact of various retrofit strategies on the operational performance of Al-Imam Al-Hussein Mosque, one of the large historic mosques in Cairo, considering the energy performance, thermal comfort, and daylighting performance. The current performance of the mosque has been analyzed using energy simulation software to determine the areas that affect its performance. Hence, five retrofitting strategies have been studied to assess their impact on improving the performance of the mosque. When changes are applied to the building envelope only by changing the glazing type, the visual discomfort is improved while sufficient daylighting is maintained inside the prayer area. By adding a cooling system and applying changes to the building envelope, thermal comfort was improved, and the visual discomfort decreased. However, this has led to an increase in energy consumption. Combining different strategies (as in strategy 5) by changing the glazing type, changing the operation scheme, adding LED lamps with dimmers, and adding a cooling system has improved the defined performance metrics. It has achieved a 23% decrease in the annual energy consumption, decreasing the visual discomfort by 30% while maintaining sufficient daylighting conditions inside the space, and enhancing occupants’ thermal comfort by 65%. The proposed approach aids in evaluating the retrofit strategies of mosque buildings, considering different criteria, including daylighting performance, to be energy efficient, sustainable, and maintain occupants’ visual and thermal comfort.

Street Design Strategies Based on Spatial Configurations and Building External Envelopes in Relation to Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Arid Climates

Climate change patterns and expected extreme weather conditions drive urban design practices toward more effective adaptation strategies for the built environment. Biskra City, one of the largest urban areas in the Algerian Sahara territory, has suffered from unprecedented extreme weather patterns, specifically during the summer. This paper examined outdoor thermal comfort in the arid climates of Biskra, Algeria, during summer extreme conditions by investigating the impact of the height-to-width (H/W) ratio aspect and the north–south (N-S) and east–west (E-W) street orientations on pedestrian thermal comfort with the parameterization of external building envelopes using brick, concrete, adobe, and limestone materials. This study was conducted with ENVI-met 5.1.1 software, based on 24 parametric scenarios, to identify the most effective composition for outdoor thermal stress mitigation using the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) thermal index. Across all scenarios, the PET index values fluctuated between PETmin = 32.2 °C and PETmax = 60.6 °C at different hours. The coupling between the H/W ratio and street orientation as geometry factors and building envelope characteristics reveals six distinct categories of building materials, each with an impact on outdoor thermal comfort: (1) high cooling (60–100%), (2) medium cooling (40–60%), (3) low cooling (<40%), (4) high heating (60–100%), (5) medium heating (40–60%), and (6) low heating material (<40%). Therefore, in the N-S orientation, limestone walls can provide a cooling efficiency range from 85% to 100% throughout deep and shallow canyons. Contrary to this, brick walls can cause a heat retention range varying from 70% to 93% within the same canyons. When considering extreme summer conditions in arid climates, the results show that the most effective bioclimatic passive strategy that could be achieved is the E-W orientation, within H/W < 1, characterized by a high albedo building material.

Prediction of an Efficient Energy-Consumption Model for Existing Residential Buildings in Lebanon Using an Artificial Neural Network as a Digital Twin in the Era of Climate Change

Environmental factors, such as climate change, have serious consequences for existing buildings, including increased resource consumption and footprint, adverse health effects, and reduced comfort for the occupants. To promote sustainability and address climate change, architecture must embrace digitalization. Buildings can be built digitally, analyzed in real time, optimized for energy consumption, and utilized to reduce carbon emissions and achieve zero energy consumption using digital twin technology. Currently, Lebanon’s residents are turning to solar power to generate renewable energy as a result of a lack of energy supplied by the government. In this study, a digital twin model was designed using an artificial neural network (ANN) to investigate the energy consumption of residential buildings. The main idea was to assist architects and engineers in forecasting energy consumption for different design materials by selecting the most effective alternate design for materials with building envelope characteristics, such as exterior walls, roof insulation, and windows, to minimize the consumption of energy in a residential building, hence resulting in a green building. The data simulations used in the digital twin model were carried out using Quick Energy Simulation Tool (eQuest) software; 1540 simulation results were used for different thicknesses of insulation material, values of conductivity, and window types. The digital twins were designed using an artificial neural network model. The results of the investigation and the accompanying eQuest output results were found to be precise and very similar.

Cracking the code: mapping residential building energy performance in rural Central Asia through building typologies

Buildings in rural Central Asia have unique characteristics as they were built during the Soviet era (during 1950–1960) without any energy efficiency measures. The special and aged building stock pose a crucial challenge on energy security and energy supply. However, accurate scientific data on their energy usage is lacking, highlighting a research gap about robust and validated methodology to determine the energy use of rural Central Asian buildings. In response to this need, this research paper proposes a set of generalised residential building typologies for rural Central Asia, with a focus on Kyrgyzstan. The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods, including household surveys, energy demand modelling, EnergyPlus simulations, and result validation. It derives energy-based building typologies from construction year and building envelope characteristics. Through numerous validated simulations, it was identified that the heat demand for rural Kyrgyz houses is 3–5 times here compared to European houses (250–400 kWh/m2). The study revealed the estimated heat demand for homes in rural Kyrgyzstan, indicating a significant potential for improving building energy efficiency in the region. These results can inform specific approaches, such as building renovation plans, energy certification, and renovation strategies. Furthermore, the validated methodology introduced offers opportunities for researchers in the field of building energy efficiency and can be applied to similar regions in Central Asia with comparable building stocks and climates.

Conducting smart energy audits of buildings with the use of building information modelling

Energy audits are an integral part of the overall energy savings strategy in the building sector. The significance of energy audits was confirmed both by their adoption by the European Energy Savings Directive (2012/27) as well as by the development and issuance of a large number of European standards (standard series EN16247, EN 15378, EN 16798, EN 16946, EN 16947 etc.), related to the energy audit of buildings and building systems. However, current practices for conducting energy audits in buildings do not adopt the latest developments in the field of Industry 4.0 practices, resulting in the general belief within the engineering community of building physics that energy auditing can be further updated and improved. This work aims to introduce a novel approach for the improvement of existing building energy audit practices with the adaptation of building information models and associated data. The study presents the potential of evaluation process utilizing building information models for constituent energy audit procedure – assessment of building energy consumption related to building envelope. The question of whether there is room for further adoption of digitization practices in carrying out energy audits, as well as the possibilities of developing new tools in this area are addressed. Following this, the main outcome of this study is the overview and analysis of Industry Foundation Classes schema building information model data structure and its interrelationships with the aim of using the extracted information to digitize energy audit procedures. Research approach covers digitization of building energy consumption assessment influenced by building envelope characteristics, as well as evaluation of economic and energy aspects for possible building shell optimization scenarios. The study also presents the results of a case study evaluation carried out with the developed tool using building envelope modification feature for various environment and economic parameters. Additionally, the architecture, and the rationale for the developed tool backed, used to extract necessary information for implementing building energy audits are presented. We finalize with the discussion on upcoming developments in the field and on future work of this study.

Assessing retrofit strategies for mosque buildings using TOPSIS

Energy demand is rapid increase with the increase in usage of energy-consuming devices and growth in global buildings floor area. For this reason, many countries have developed policies and rating systems for converting current buildings to more energy-efficient and sustainable ones. However, religious buildings such as mosques were given little attention. Mosques are considered one of the unique building types for their operational scheme, and occupancy pattern throughout the year differ from any other types of buildings. Many factors affect mosques’ operational performance, such as energy wastage from their intermittent operation, poor building envelope characteristics, excessive lighting and HVAC systems, and poor thermal and visual comfort for the occupants. This paper presents a framework that aids in assessing and enhancing the operational performance of mosque buildings using five main evaluation criteria. The development of the framework involves four main stages. The first stage involves data acquisition using 3D laser scanning for electronic building documentation and site investigation that identifies the main factors affecting mosques’ operational performance. The second stage involves constructing the BIM model for developing the energy analysis model using IESVE (Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment) software. Then, the third stage considers proposing different retrofit strategies that could be applied to evaluate their impact on the mosques’ operational performance. Finally, the last stage identifies the assessment criteria for evaluating the impact of the proposed retrofit strategies and developing a decision-making model using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) as decision-making techniques. The framework is demonstrated using an actual case study of Imam Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, to demonstrate its main features.

Multiobjective optimization of building energy consumption and thermal comfort based on integrated BIM framework with machine learning-NSGA II

Detailed parametric analysis and measurements are required to reduce building energy usage while maintaining acceptable thermal conditions. This research suggested a system that combines Building Information Modeling (BIM), machine learning, and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA II) to investigate the impact of building factors on energy usage and find the optimal design. A plugin is developed to receive sensor data and export all necessary information from BIM to MSSQL and Excel. The BIM model was imported to IDA Indoor Climate and Energy (IDA ICE) to execute an energy consumption simulation and then a pairwise test to produce the sample data set. To study the data set and develop a prediction model between building factors and energy usage, 11 machine learning algorithms are used. The best algorithm was Group Least Square Support Vector Machine (GLSSVM), later employed in NSGA II as the building energy consumption fitness function using Dynamo software. An NSGA II multi-objective optimization model is designed to reduce building energy consumption and optimize interior thermal comfort (measured by the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD)). The Pareto front is calculated, and the optimum point approach is used to find the best combination of building envelope characteristics, HVAC setpoints, shading parameters, lighting, and air infiltration. The feasibility and effectiveness of the developed framework are demonstrated using a case study of an upper secondary school building in Norway; the results show that: (1) The GLSSVM has a unique capacity to forecast building energy use with high accuracy: R2 of 0.99, an RMSE of 1.2, MSE of 1.44, and MAE of 0.89; (2) Building energy consumption and thermal comfort may be successfully improved by the GLSSVM-NSGA II hybrid technique, which reduces energy consumption by 37.5% and increases thermal comfort by 33.5%, respectively.

Method for dynamic thermal insulation design revealing almost real heat transfer characteristics of building envelopes in different Chinese regions

The thermal insulation design for building envelopes in winter is traditionally based on steady-state heat transfer, which is the common ground of related building energy efficiency standards in the world. However, its adaptability may be limited to highly dynamic indoor and outdoor thermal environments, especially due to intense solar radiation. This study aims to explore the influence of climatic conditions on the heat transfer of building envelopes and the dynamic thermal insulation (DTI) design method responding to the local climate in China. The actual heat transfer characteristics of residential building envelopes and related factors were investigated based on field tests in two regions. The results showed that in contrast to Guanzhong Plain in Xi’an, strong alternate variations and differences occurred in the heat transfers of building envelopes at different orientations in Tibetan Plateau in Lhasa due to intense solar radiation and large diurnal temperature range. Hence, a DTI design method based on the dynamic heat transfer characteristics is recommended in these areas to maximize solar energy utilization. The outdoor heating supply degree-hours (OHSDH) and outdoor heating supply duration (OHSD) were developed to analyze DTI suitability zoning for 234 cities and towns in China. The optimal zone was identified as Sichuan-Tibet Plateau in Western China with high OHSD and OHSDH values (over 7 h and 95.64 °C·h, respectively). The study findings may provide references for the development of precise climate-responsive design.

Large-Area Transparent “Quantum Dot Glass” for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics

A concept of transparent “quantum dot glass” (TQDG) is proposed for a combination of a quantum dot (QD)-based glass luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) and its edge-attached solar cells, as a type of transparent photovoltaics (TPVs) for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs). Different from conventional LSCs, which typically serve as pure optical devices, TQDGs have to fulfill requirements as both power-generating components and building construction materials. In this work, we demonstrate large-area (400 cm2) TQDGs based on silicon QDs in a triplex glass configuration. An overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.57% was obtained with back-reflection for a transparent TQDG (average visible transmittance of 84% with a color rendering index of 88 and a low haze ≤3%), contributing to a light utilization efficiency (LUE) of 1.3%, which is among the top reported TPVs based on the LSC technology with similar size. Most importantly, these TQDGs are shown to have better thermal and sound insulation properties compared to normal float glass, as well as improved mechanical performance and safety, which significantly pushes the TPV technology toward practical building integration. TQDGs simultaneously exhibit favorable photovoltaic, aesthetic, and building envelope characteristics and can serve as a multifunctional material for the realization of nearly zero-energy building concepts.

Influence of building envelope characteristics on the effectiveness of PMV-based controls for schools located in Saudi Arabia

This paper summarizes the results of a comprehensive analysis to investigate the performance of both thermal comfort-based and temperature-based controls for schools in harsh hot climates of Saudi Arabia. The analysis considers the impact of building envelope characteristics including thermal insulation level of exterior walls and air leakage rate on the ability of both control options to maintain indoor thermal comfort while minimizing cooling energy consumption. The analysis utilizes a calibrated energy model for an existing Saudi school with monitored energy consumption data. The analysis results indicated that the thermal comfort-based control is able to maintain the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) value at 5% throughout the year for any combination of the exterior wall’s R-value and air infiltration rate unlike the case of the temperature-based controls that do not maintain acceptable indoor thermal comfort conditions. However, the thermal comfort-based controls consume more cooling energy than the temperature-based controls. The analysis also revealed that the difference between the annual cooling energy of the PMV-based control and the temperature-based controls increases almost linearly with the cooling degree days of the site where the school is located. The analysis results indicate that acceptable indoor thermal comfort levels can be achieved using temperature-based controls when optimal temperature set points are used.

Determination of Optimum Building Envelope Parameters of a Room concerning Window-to-Wall Ratio, Orientation, Insulation Thickness and Window Type

The building envelope includes all materials (glazing, external walls, doors, etc.) that separate the conditioned space from the outside environment. Building envelope characteristics significantly influence the energy consumption of buildings. In this study, research was carried out to find optimum building envelope design parameters, such as insulation thickness, orientation, glazing type, and the window-to-wall ratio of a room, using actual climatic data of two cities with different characteristics according to the Köppen climatic classification. The insulation thickness and the window type that minimizes the net present worth of the building façade over 20 years of a lifetime gave the optimum values. In addition, the effect of the various parameters, such as the infiltration rate through the envelope, room set-point temperature, and the fuel type, on the net present cost was also analyzed. It was found that appropriate selection of windows, orientation, and insulation thickness would lead to a significant reduction in the annual energy consumption. Despite having the lowest initial investment cost, the room with single glazed windows had the highest energy requirement and the net present cost. The building façade with double glazed windows, oriented towards the south-west, yielded the minimum net present cost in both locations. Results showed that the optimum external wall thickness is 9 cm in Hakkari (Dsa—Continental Climate) and 6 cm in Istanbul (Csa—Mild Climate).

Thermal Storage Performance of Underground Cave Dwellings under Kang Intermittent Heating: A Case Study of Northern China

The intermittent heating mode of Kang plays an important role in the heat storage and release in cave dwellings. However, research on the effect of Kang heating on the thermal process of traditional buildings is rare. Therefore, based on long-term monitoring of cave dwellings, regular conclusions about the influence of Kang heating on the thermal environment were obtained. Furthermore, an unsteady heat transfer model of the envelope was proposed for the first time. Then, based on this model, the thermal storage performance of cave dwellings during the period of Kang intermittent heating was explored. The results showed that, due to Kang heating, the indoor air temperature of cave dwellings could be increased by an average of 3.1 °C. Furthermore, the inner walls had a large thermal mass and the maximum heat storage in a single day was 487.75 kJ/m2, while the maximum heat release was 419.02 kJ/m2. The heat release at night could reach 87%. In this paper, the law of thermal storage and release characteristics of earthen building envelopes under intermittent heating was firstly obtained. Results can enrich the thermal process theory of earthen buildings and provide a theoretical basis and technical support for building thermal environmental construction.

Investigation of a passive design approach for a building facility: a case study

ABSTRACT Educational buildings represent an indivisible part of every society, and it is necessary to make them energy efficient. In the current research on the energy-efficient retrofit of school buildings, the impact of several passive design strategies is studied. These interventions include improvement of the building envelope characteristics and parameters related to select passive design systems. In order to determine whether applying a green roof, double-skin facade, or Trombe wall, with or without shading contributes to heating and cooling energy consumption reduction, building energy performance was simulated using the EnergyPlus and jEplus software. This holistic approach takes into consideration parameters that may be critical for the success of the energy-efficient retrofit of school buildings. The results revealed which parameters provide the most significant heating and cooling energy savings of the modeled school buildings in local climatic conditions. By applying the appropriate combination of interventions, the heating energy saving can be up to 77%, while with a proper mix of the proposed measures, the maximum cooling energy savings are up to 79%.

Energy Performance of School Buildings by Construction Periods in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper is part of broader research aimed at determining the relationship between energy performance and energy costs as a part of the operational and life cycle costs in school buildings in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), as exceptionally important social and public buildings. The research was conducted by statistical analysis of data collected from documents of detailed energy audits (DEA) for 185 school buildings in FBiH in relation to construction periods. The paper analyzes the characteristics of buildings such as construction period, building envelope characteristics, climatic conditions, efficiency of installed space heating system, number of users and heating mode. The aim of this research was to determine the energy performance for the existing state and to compare them with the allowable values in accordance with the applicable legal regulations. There is a performance gap between predicted (calculated) and measured (actual) delivered energy for space heating. This research shows poor energy performance and provides a basis for developing strategies and plans to improve energy efficiency. The results of the energy performance of school buildings in the FBiH are the first step towards the development of a model for predicting energy costs.

Large-Area Transparent 'Quantum Dot Glass' for Building Integrated Photovoltaics

A concept of transparent “Quantum Dot Glass” (TQDG) is proposed for a combination of quantum dot (QD) based glass luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) and its edge-attached solar cells, as a type of transparent photovoltaics (TPV) for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). Different from conventional LSCs, which typically serve as pure optical devices, TQDGs have to fulfill requirements both as power-generating components and building envelop construction materials. In this work, we demonstrate large-area (400 cm2) TQDGs based on environmentally benign silicon QDs in a triplex glass configuration. Balanced photovoltaic performance and aesthetic quality of the TQDGs were achieved by optimization of Si QDs/polymer interlayer thickness and QD loading in the devices. As a result, an overall electrical power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.57% was obtained with back-reflection for a highly transparent TQDG (average visible transmittance of 84%, with color rendering index of 94 and low haze ≤ 3%), contributing to a high light utilization efficiency (LUE) of 1.3%, which is among the top of reported TPVs based on LSC technology with similar size. Most importantly, these TQDGs are shown to have better thermal and sound insulation property compared to normal float glass, as well as improved mechanical performance and safety, which significantly pushes the TPV technology towards practical building integration and construction. TQDGs simultaneously exhibiting favorable photovoltaic, aesthetic and building-envelope characteristics, can serve as a multifunctional material for the realization of nearly zero-energy building concept.

A conceptual model for how to design for building envelope characteristics. Impact of thermal comfort intervals and thermal mass on commercial buildings in U.S. climates

The paper presents a simplified conceptual model for energy demand calculations based on building envelope characteristics, thermal mass and local climate. It is based on a network model and lumped analysis of the dynamic process. Characteristic parameters for the buildings are suggested; Driving temperature (DT), Driving temperature difference, (DTD), External Load Temperature (ELT), and Thermal Load Resistance (TLR). The Building Envelope Performance (BEP0), based on a controlled constant indoor temperature is introduced. Solution techniques using stable explicit forward differences based on analytical solutions are derived. The conceptual model has been used for mapping the Driving temperature difference and introduced two performance factors α and β. The first factor represents the effect of thermal comfort interval and thermal mass on the energy demand. The latter represents the ratio between cooling and heating energy demand. These three parameters and factors have been visualized on U.S. maps and enable a possibility to communicate the demand of energy, and cooling and the coupling to building characteristics, in a concise way.

A real-time diagnostic tool for evaluating the thermal performance of nearly zero energy buildings

The nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) presents a promising contribution to fulfill the EU sustainable future targets. However, the construction industry that leads the development of nZEB is facing challenges to guarantee its performance. In this context, this paper proposes a methodology framework based on Multizone Resistance–Capacitance Model to trace the nZEB performance challenges with quantifications for the time-dependent variables comprising occupant behaviors as well as the dynamic behavior of weather conditions and building operations. This approach incorporates Bayesian optimization for calibration purposes to minimize the required monitoring data. Moreover, the proposed framework integrates the uncertainty analysis (UA) with two-step global sensitivity analysis (GSA) in order to quantify and assess the uncertainty associate with the performance of the developed digital dwelling. The methodology application is demonstrated through a case study for a newly renovated two-story dwelling located in a district of Emmen at the Netherlands. The results confirm a high accuracy for the digital dwelling performance where the model offers a prediction accuracy of 2.2% and 7.03% for the thermal energy consumption and indoor zone temperature, respectively. On the other hand, the UA confirms a high uncertainty associate with the nZEB performance where the total thermal energy consumption can increase up to 100 kWh/m2/yr. This variation is driven by the infiltration rates followed by the building envelope characteristics. The proposed framework can serve a diagnostic tool to assist the construction and installation companies to maintain the performance of their products proactively.

Development of a simplified thermal performance prediction method based on free-running temperatures and building envelope characteristics

Various thermal prediction methods and tools for conceptual building design have been rapidly developed in the past decades. However, most of these methods have some drawbacks to obsess their applications, such as heavily relying on very detailed information of building envelope components, and their thermal conductivity data with complicated computation models or formulas; and difficulties for architects to understand and judge the outcomes of such predictions in a conceptual design. Therefore, this research targets on developing a simplified method to predict the integrated thermal performance of a building with simplified envelope parameters and hourly free-running temperatures in the conceptual design stage. It categorizes the scattered design parameters into three combined thermal characteristic indexes and applies a serials of corresponding quasi-steady calculation methods for building thermal processes to predict hourly free-running temperatures. The interrelationships between these three combined indexes and two overall thermal performance indicators are verified via a sensitivity analysis, and are presented in two charts, which can easily be adopted in a conceptual building design. This method has been validated in an experimental case study. It can help architects to quickly find the thermal design performance of a designed building in the conceptual design stage.

Comparison of ground coupled heat transfer models for predicting underground building energy consumption

Underground buildings have gained attentions to alleviate urban land-scarcity. Evaluation of energy performance remains complex and uncertain for underground buildings, where the heat transfer through building envelopes is a typical three-dimensional unsteady heat transfer process. A few models have been proposed to calculate the ground coupled heat transfer (GCHT) through underground building envelopes. This paper evaluates and analyzes the influence of different GCHT models on energy consumption prediction of underground buildings. The models tested include: Ground Domain Xing (EnergyPlus), Basement Preprocessor (EnergyPlus), Foundation Kiva (EnergyPlus), and Frequency Response Analysis (DeST), which are compared under the criteria of consistency of model outputs and computational time. The study reveals that the Ground Domain Xing model can be considered as the relatively accurate GCHT model with low computational cost. One critical factor that differentiates these GCHT models is the ground surface boundary condition used. The study further explores the influence of thermal characteristics of underground building envelopes on annual energy consumption for five climate zones of China using the Ground Domain Xing model. The results show that the better thermal performance of underground building envelopes may increase the annual energy consumption in different climate regions.