Warm Winter Region Research Articles

Carbon Emission Accounting and Reduction for Buildings Based on a Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study in China’s Hot-Summer and Warm-Winter Region

At the 75th United Nations General Assembly, China committed to peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. In response, the national standard “General Specification for Building Energy Conservation and Utilization of Renewable Energy” has been adopted across 20 provinces and cities in seven major regions, including North China, Northeast China, and South China. These regions have implemented stringent energy-saving and emission reduction reviews and quota requirements. Despite this, there is limited research on comprehensive life cycle carbon emission calculations and carbon reduction designs. This study addresses this gap by focusing on economically developed regions with high population density and substantial energy-saving potential, specifically targeting the warm winter and hot summer regions of China. Using a commercial building in Shenzhen as a case study, we established a carbon emission accounting model based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. We calculated carbon emissions during the material phase using the project’s bill of quantities and relevant carbon emission factors. Additionally, we used the CEEB 2023 software to design energy-saving and emission reduction solutions for the building. Our comparative analysis reveals that the new design reduces the carbon emissions of the case study building by 13.5%. This reduction not only mitigates the environmental impact of construction but also contributes to the fight against the greenhouse effect, supporting the broader goal of sustainable development.

Modeling and analyzing patterns of residential manual window operation

Abstract Window operating behaviour can improve indoor air quality, human thermal comfort, and building energy efficiency. Studies on occupants’ window opening behaviour in hot summer and warm winter region of China are limited and influencing factors and prediction models are not clear. Another limitation is the large number of proposed machine learning-based window opening behaviour models. However, the applicability and stability of these models in different datasets has not been proven. In response to these questions, modelling and field measurements were conducted in Quanzhou, China. Two different types of window-opening behaviour were noticed in the tested households. The first type was the all-closed windows, which had an average daily window-opening rate of 0.03%. The second type was the low-intensity window opening. The average daily window-opening rate was 10.6% and 9.1%, respectively. Then, the analysis of point biserial correlation coefficients revealed different reasons for closing windows in low-intensity households. One household closed the windows due to high outdoor humidity and the other mainly due to high outdoor wind speed and outdoor temperature. Furthermore, the suitable hyperparameters were screened for the support vector machine (SVM) model by K-fold cross-validation and grid search. The prediction model achieved an accuracy of 98.5% on the test set. Finally, the SVM model was trained and tested to verify the robustness of the model using data from the published literature. The prediction accuracy was improved from 0.7% to 7.4% compared to the different models used in the published literature.

Evaluation, Simulation, and Empirical Study of Community Microclimate Comfort

Urban microclimates directly impact the comfort of living environments and human health. This study focuses on a community within a university in Guangzhou and constructs a corresponding index system from the perspectives of regional climate analysis and architectural layout. It summarizes the key spatial elements influencing thermal comfort in living environments. The results indicate: (1) Guangzhou is located in a typical hot-summer and warm-winter region, characterized by a humid climate; (2) Using a university community in Guangzhou, Guangdong, as the research subject, a comprehensive comparison is made between simulated and empirically measured comfort evaluations. A related factor analysis is conducted to identify the key factors affecting wind efficiency. Among these, variables such as daily average temperature at Panyu Station, average wind speed at Panyu Station, and average building height 50 meters from the sampling point are found to have correlations with both simulated and measured thermal comfort indicators; (3) The analysis reveals significant differences between simulated and actual comfort, primarily due to the influences of architectural layouts, spatial arrangements, and real environmental factors.

Field measurement and analysis of subway tunnel thermal environment in severe cold region

Recently, subways in China's severe cold regions have developed rapidly. Harbin, a typical city in a severe cold region, can reach the lowest outdoor temperature of −37.7 °C in winter, making the thermal environment of the underground tunnels a huge challenge. Due to the complexity of the subway environment, there are few long-term field measurements, and the research on entrance and exit lines is often neglected. In this study, the thermal environment of Harbin Metro Line 1/3 and the entrance and exit lines was measured and studied, the heat production of train operation and annual heat storage heat was calculated. The results show that climatic conditions, burial depth, operating phase of the tunnel, passenger flow, and driving interval have an impact on the thermal environment of the tunnel. The daily average temperature difference between the two ends of the entrance and exit lines reached a maximum of 27.4 °C in winter. The average air temperature of Line 1 in summer, transition season and winter were 4.0 °C, 1.0 °C and 2.5 °C higher than that of Line 3, and the heat generated per hour was 201 MJ–242 MJ higher than Line 3. Furthermore, the heat storage capacity of tunnels in severe cold region was significantly higher than that in hot summer and warm winter region, the maximum difference was 823 GJ. The monitoring data are useful for both analytical and numerical studies and this study provide a valuable reference for the construction and operation of subways in severe cold regions.

Modelling of snow interception on a Japanese cedar canopy based on weighing tree experiment in a warm winter region

AbstractSnow interception by tree canopy affects the water and energy budgets. Several snow interception models have been proposed to estimate the temporal change of intercepted snow on the tree canopy from meteorological data. However, most models are based on a few observational results at limited sites or some conceptual understandings and assumptions; they still need more observational evidence and more detailed descriptions in the parameterization model for snow accumulation and snow unloading response to various meteorological conditions. A weighing tree experiment that measures the intercepted snow on the cut Japanese cedar trees was conducted in Tokamachi, Japan, to investigate the relationship between meteorological conditions and the change of intercepted snow. The results showed that the interception efficiency, which shows the ratio of intercepted snow to the total precipitation, increased with increasing air temperature in the range from −4.2 to 0°C due to increased adhesion and cohesion of snow. The maximum interception capacity was not present in observations such as an air temperature range. The unloading of intercepted snow from the canopy induced by snowmelt was related to air temperature, solar radiation, and intercepted snow amount. The snow unloading caused by wind‐blowing intercepted snow off the tree, started to develop at wind speeds exceeding 0.8 m s−1. The wind‐induced snow unloading rate coefficient increased as the wind speed increased. This study proposed a new parameterization model of snow interception based on these observations. It is the only snow interception model to use solar radiation in the snow unloading parameterization. It found that simulated and observed temporal changes of intercepted snow correlated well. Nevertheless, there were significant errors between the simulated and observed intercepted snow on several snowfall events because the model could not accurately assess the occurrence of snow unloading due to snowmelt.

Optical path model and energy performance optimization of aerogel glazing system filled with aerogel granules

Aerogel glazing system (AGS) is an advanced energy-efficient glazing system. According to Lambert-Beer Law, the optical path is a significant parameter that influences the optical performance of AGS, and thus influences the thermal-energy performance. However, the optical path of the granular aerogel layer in AGS has never been calculated before. In this study, a model was newly proposed to calculate the optical path of the granular aerogel layer. Firstly, the optical path of a single aerogel granule was calculated through geometrical optics. Then, the inhomogeneous distribution of aerogel granules was transformed to a homogeneous distribution through an equivalent model. Finally, the optical path of the aerogel layer was calculated by integration. The calculated optical path was utilized to simulate the spectral transmittance of different AGSs which were compared to the experimental results to validate the accuracy of the model. The results showed that the maximum difference between the simulated value and measured value of solar transmittance is 2.1 %. The results also indicated that the influence of the granule diameter on solar transmittance is slighter than the filling thickness. The energy performances of AGSs with different aerogel granules and different filling thicknesses were also simulated and evaluated under different weather conditions. The results showed that P1F16 (the diameter is 1 mm and the filling thickness is 16 mm) could reduce 22 % heat loss/gain when facing horizon and 10 % heat loss/gain when facing east and west in hot summer and cold winter region. The results also showed that P1F16 could reduce 17.36 % heat gain in the whole year in hot summer and warm winter region. It is also noticed that changing the aerogel granule’s diameter and the filling thickness has little effect on the energy performance of aerogel glazing system when faced north orientation.

Energy Performance Assessment of the Container Housing in Subtropical Region of China upon Future Climate Scenarios

Being continuously abandoned in huge amounts year-round by freight industry, shipping containers meet increasing regenerative utility in forms of temporary buildings, small public facilities, etc., especially in fast-developing countries with large populations and high living intensities like China. Although recycled containers have been nicely entitled with green building visions, their characterized inferior thermal properties (low inertia, poor insulation, etc.) when compared to conventional building forms and materials will greatly hinder their energy-saving potential, especially under the serious future extreme climate expectations. It therefore becomes particularly necessary to uncover the actual energy and thermophysical behaviors of the container building typology, upon extreme future climate scenarios targeting zero carbon forms for small-scale and temporary buildings in the upcoming future. In reference to existing data, this study made reasonable predictions of future extreme climate conditions (2050 and 2080), employing the Morphing method, and examined the cooling energy performances of the typical container housing in a subtropical climate through dynamic simulations. The energy-saving effectiveness of key design variables including insulation types, thicknesses, window opening areas and air infiltration rates has been validated and quantitatively revealed for such a building typology among the tested hot summer and warm winter region. Results imply that the additional energy burden brought by future extreme weather conditions cannot be ignored. The heat gains from envelopes and hot air infiltration are both key design factors of cooling energy increments for such building types upon future extreme climates. Compared with expanded pearl- and vermiculite-type insulation materials, thinner (70~90 mm) plastics and mineral wool-type ones have better energy-saving performance and therefore are worth consideration. High air infiltration rates and window openings in eastern or western orientations shall be carefully selected. The research outcomes can provide key references for design decisions made for the energy-efficient and low-carbon design of the container building typology among subtropical zones, or similar climate regions in response to future climate conditions.

Seasonal performance and climatic adaptability of a solar-powered microchannel membrane-based absorption refrigeration system

Microchannel membrane-based absorption refrigeration system (MMARS) has vast potential to satisfy the increasing cooling demand by utilizing renewable and waste thermal energy. To maximize its potential for future large-scale applications, the geometries of the MMARS were optimized for the first time to obtain the lowest system cost under various weather conditions and cooling demands in different climate zones of China. After optimization, Kunming (mild region) has the highest levelized cooling demand cost of 0.2710 $/kWh because of its high initial cost, while Beijing (cold region) has the lowest cost of 0.1508 $/kWh due to its rich solar energy to reduce the operating cost and sufficient cooling demand to levelize the initial cost. It is worth noting that if only natural gas is counted in energy consumption, Kunming, with rich solar energy, achieves the highest seasonal COP of 2.654, but Hong Kong (hot summer and warm winter region) with insufficient solar energy only gets 1.318 because of the low proportion (48.84%) of solar energy in its heat sources. This paper provides a seasonal performance-based geometries optimization of the MMARS and studies its climatic adaptability in different climate zones, facilitating the reasonable design and application of efficient and compact absorption refrigeration systems.

Characteristics of Urban Heat Island in China and Its Influences on Building Energy Consumption

Urban heat island (UHI) draws more attention as it affects not only the health of residents but also the energy consumption of buildings at the city scale. To achieve carbon neutrality goals, it is crucial to better understand the mechanism of the UHI influences on building energy consumption. The characteristics of urban heat island intensity (UHII) and the relationship between the UHII effect and building electricity and related coal consumption were analyzed, based on the long period of monitoring data with hourly weather data from 1 January to 31 December 2019. Results show that a strong correlation between the annual mean UHII and the median daily mean UHII exists. The synthetic diurnal UHII of most cities presents a U-shaped variation trend. In different building climate zones in China, namely, severe cold region (SCR), cold region (CR), hot summer cold winter region (HSCWR), hot summer and warm winter region (HSWWR), and mild region (MR), the influences of UHII on building energy consumption were analyzed. The existence of UHI reduces building energy consumption in 96.7% of SCR cities and 60.8% of CR cities, while in HSCWR, HSWWR, and MR cities, the percentage of cities where the building energy consumption is increased by UHI is 69.4%, 80%, and 63.6%, respectively. Urban climate strongly influences building energy consumption, indicating that it should be considered and analyzed in detail for making future urban development or carbon emission reduction strategies.

Energy benchmarking analysis of subway station with platform screen door system in China

The energy consumption of Ventilation and Air Conditioning (VAC) systems in subway stations has attracted much attention, aiming to figure out energy-saving potentials and improve energy efficiency. Benchmarking is a useful method to evaluate energy performance of VAC systems during the operational stage. This study describes the development of an energy benchmarking model for the analysis of VAC energy consumption in subway stations with platform screen door systems in a variety of climate regions in China. Firstly, the Constraint Value (CV) and Leading Value (LV) of VAC energy use were simulated using a validated theoretical energy model, which represent the “general” and “superior” level of the VAC energy use, respectively. Results show that, for the 2,520 simulated cases, CV ranges from 184 to 859 × 103 kWh/year and LV ranges from 178 to 529 × 103 kWh/year, with different ranges for cold, hot-summer cold-winter, and hot-summer warm-winter region. Next, the simulated values of CV and LV were applied to establish an energy benchmarking model using the ordinary least square approach. For each climate region, the regressive energy benchmarking models for CV and LV were established and validated by cross-validation. Results show that R2 are 0.753–0.903 and MBE of the test set are 2.1–7.1%, indicating a good fit for the regressive benchmarking models. In order to further test their application, the regressive models were then applied to existing subway stations. Finally, the impacts of service-related variables, i.e. number of passengers, train departure density, and tunnel length, on the CV and LV were discussed. The proposed energy benchmarking model and analysis provide a convenient and effective tool for operators and managers to evaluate VAC energy consumption status and assess energy-saving potentials for subway stations.

Numerical study on performance of a hybrid indirect evaporative cooling heat recovery heat pump ventilator as applied in different climatic regions of China

Indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) and heat recovery are key technologies for decarbonising heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) while their performance is affected by the ambient environment. This paper presents a numerical investigation of a recently developed hybrid ventilator integrating the IEC and heat recovery. A TRNSYS-Matlab model was used to evaluate the ventilator's adaptability (operational and energy performance) in a public building at five typical cities in China. According to the validated model analysis, the ventilator shows a superior adaptability to the temperate region, with the lowest annual energy use at 96.70 kWh/m2 and the minimum energy input of the auxiliary source at 39.29% of the total energy use. The hybrid ventilator's adaptability is followed by the hot summer cold winter region and cold region where the ventilator covers 85% of the total heating/cooling loads in transition seasons. The severe cold region and hot summer warm winter region requires a significant auxiliary energy use for the stable indoor air parameters, which consumes 70.64% and 60.1% of the annual energy use, respectively. Future works are to improve the performance of the IEC and heat pump unit in the two climatic regions for better adaptability of the ventilator.

A general method to evaluate the applicability of natural energy for building cooling and heating: Revised degree hours

Utilizing natural energy directly for building cooling and heating can reduce the energy use of the HVAC systems significantly. There are various utilization forms of natural energies for building cooling and heating. The applicability of natural ventilation was evaluated in the previous studies by degree hours method which cannot be used for the evaluation of other natural energy utilizing forms. To provide guidance for selecting proper natural energy and the utilizing forms for building cooling and heating, a general method, i.e., the revised degree hours method, is proposed. Firstly, the conception and rationality of the revised degree hours method are indicated by comparing with the degree hours method. Then, the utilizations of revised degree hours method in evaluating the applicability of natural energy are discussed in terms of different climates, different natural energies and different utilizing forms. The results show that the revised degree hours can directly reflect the energy saving potential of natural energy and it is capable of fairly evaluating different utilization forms with different kinds of natural energies. According to these cases analyzed in this paper, the mechanical ventilation shows a quite promising potential in the temperate region; both the dew point evaporative cooling and the ground heat exchanger fresh air handling system are outstanding in the dry and cold region; the cooling tower combined with pipe-embedded window system works well in the hot summer and cold winter region as well as the hot summer and warm winter region. In conclusion, the revised degree hours method contributes to the low carbon development of HVAC systems by guiding the full use of natural energy for building energy efficiency.

Numerical Investigation of key design parameter impact on building loads for public space organization of courtyard hotel in South China*

The courtyard type hotels are commonly seen in hot summer and cold winter region as well as hot summer and warm winter region of China. With its grown size and more complex functions, its energy consumption gets dramatically increased accordingly. Up to now, research of the design parameter impact on energy consumption for space organization in courtyard hotel is quite limited. Through numerical simulation, this study validated the influence on building loads of key design parameters including the orientation, relative position, window-to-wall ratio of the public space, and the position of the traffic core space in courtyard hotels. According to the results, for both the hot summer cold winter region and hot summer winter warm region, the lower total building load was seen when the large space is on the northern side in parallel or on northwest and southeast in diagonal layout. With the traffic space splitted and placed at the corners of the building, the lighting load increases, and leads to unsatisfactory total energy performance. For the comparative suitable plan layout, higher window-to-wall ratio of public spaces (larger than 0.3) can significantly raise the total load per unit area. The findings in this research can provide valuable references for the energy-saving design of space organization in urban courtyard-type hotel buildings.

Study on thermal insulation characteristics and optimized design of pipe-embedded ventilation roof with outer-layer shape-stabilized PCM in different climate zones

Roof receives heat directly from the solar radiation and outdoor air, and the heat transfer of the roof is often greater than that of any external wall. The building roof is usually overheated in summer, causing a great increase in the air conditioning load and negative effects on indoor thermal comfort. Thus improving the thermal insulation performance of the roof is essential for reducing air conditioning energy consumption and improving indoor thermal comfort. In this paper, an innovative pipe-embedded ventilation roof with outer-layer shape-stabilized PCM (named VRSP for short) was proposed. The heat gain is stored in the PCM to migrate excessive heat during the day and released through air ventilation at night. A three-dimensional transient-state heat transfer model of the VRSP system was built by CFD. The effects of phase transition temperature range of PCM, thickness of PCM layer and airflow rate in the ventilation duct on the thermal performance of the structure in five representative climate regions of China were evaluated. Results show that the optimum phase transition temperature ranges of PCM in severe cold region, cold region, hot summer and cold winter region, hot summer and warm winter region and mild region are 31–33 °C, 34–36 °C, 36–38 °C, 34–36 °C and 29–31 °C, respectively. The optimum thicknesses of the PCM layer are 25–30 mm, 25–30 mm, 30–35 mm, 25–30 mm and 20–25 mm, respectively. The suitable airflow rates are 1.5–1.9 m/s, 1.6–2.0 m/s, 2.1–2.5 m/s, 1.9–2.3 m/s and 1.4–1.8 m/s, respectively. The conclusion provides valuable guides for the application of VRSP under various climate conditions.

Indoor thermal environmental evaluation of Chinese green building based on new index OTCP and subjective satisfaction

Abstract Due to energy crisis and phenomenon of global warming, green buildings have been undergoing vigorous development in China, and people are paying increasing attention to the actual operational effect of green buildings rather than the design. In this paper, 12 high-star green buildings (3 LEED Gold buildings, 1 operation Two-Star building, 1 operation Three-Star building, 1 design Two-Star building, and 6 design Three-Star buildings) in the cold region and hot summer and warm winter region (HSWW region) were taken as the research objects to evaluate their indoor thermal comfort. First, from December 2016 to March 2018, this paper conducted a continuous collection of indoor objective thermal environment data of green buildings to obtain the actual thermal environment distribution, and proposed new indexes to evaluate indoor thermal environment of green buildings, namely, OTCD (Over Thermal Comfort Distance) and OTCP (Over Thermal Comfort Percentage). It was found that indoor temperature and humidity of most buildings didn't reach the standard. The new evaluation indexes clearly showed the percentage of the indoor temperature and humidity of each green building away from the comfort zone under different standards in mathematical form, which is convenient for comparison. Second, a questionnaire survey on people's subjective satisfaction of indoor thermal comfort in green buildings was carried out at the same time, wherein 1400 valid questionnaires were recovered. Based on the different evaluation results of subjective and objective thermal comfort, the operative comfort temperature/humidity and thermal/humid comfort zone of different building climate zones were obtained by cluster and linear regression analysis. The results showed that there are differences between thermal/humid comfort zone of different building climate zones and it is helpful for the research on thermal comfort of green buildings in China and the development of relevant codes.

Environmental life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis of domestic hot water systems in China

In this study, a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment was conducted on several typical domestic hot water systems across five climatic regions of China. Variations of the climate and energy supply in these regions and the energy efficiency grade of domestic hot water systems were also taken into consideration. The results suggest that evacuated tube solar systems are highly energy-efficient and low-cost, except in the region with the weakest solar radiation. Electric systems are extremely energy-intensive and uneconomical for domestic hot water use, although they have the least human and ecological toxicity potentials. Solar and air-source energy systems save energy; however, they use more materials and cause more human and ecological toxicity. From the severe cold region to the hot summer and warm winter region, the heat load of domestic hot water increases by 59%, resulting in an increase of 58–230% in primary energy demand. Accordingly, the environmental impacts of domestic hot water systems increase in varying degrees; however, few impacts decrease due to the different emission factors of different power grids. The raw materials used in the manufacture of domestic hot water systems and the energy required for the use of the systems are the most important contributors to all environmental impacts. The scenario analysis indicates that 24.5% of the primary energy demand and 25.7% of greenhouse gas emissions owing to domestic hot water use in China can be reduced by improving the energy efficiency, prompting the use of renewable energy sources, and reducing the usage of materials for domestic hot water systems, as the human and ecological toxicity potentials will increase by 0.1% and 10%, respectively, due to the increasing use of certain materials.

Thermal performance evaluation and optimal design of building roof with outer-layer shape-stabilized PCM

Roof with outer-layer shape-stabilized phase change material (RSPCM) is a building construction that incorporates shape-stabilized phase change material (PCM) into the out layer of the roof. The decrement factor of the roof and the peak temperature of the inner surface can be greatly reduced by using the PCM in summer. CFD numerical simulation is used to investigate the thermal performance of RSPCM. The effects of the phase transition temperature, layer thickness and phase transition temperature radius of PCM are studied numerically. Results show that the suggested PCM thickness is 30 mm and the temperature radius should be as small as possible. The optimum phase transition temperatures are 31–33 °C, 34–36 °C, 36–38 °C, 34–36 °C, and 29–31 °C respectively in severe cold region, cold region, hot summer and cold winter region, hot summer and warm winter region and mild region. The decrement factors at the corresponding optimum phase transition temperature are about 0.030, which are lower than that of the roof without PCM by over 85%. The peak temperatures of the inner roof surface are all decreased by over 3.7 °C. These results can be used as a guideline for optimum design to improve the dynamic thermal performance of roof structure in summer.

The Optimum Phase Transition Temperature for Building Roof with Outer Layer PCM in Different Climate Regions of China

Outer-layer shape-stabilized phase change roof is a building roof construction that laying shape-stabilized phase change material (PCM) on the surface of the roof. The peak temperature and the decrement factor of the roof inner surface can be greatly reduced. In this study, the thermal insulation properties of this structure in five climate regions of China are studied using CFD numerical simulation. By comparing with roof without PCM, the optimal phase transition temperature for each climate region is analyzed. The results show that the phase transition temperature of the PCM in the roof increases linearly with the increase of the average outdoor solar air temperature. The optimum phase transition temperatures in severe cold region, cold region, hot summer and cold winter region, hot summer and warm winter region, and mild region are 31~33°C, 34~36°C,36~38°C, 34~36°C, and 29~31°C, respectively. The corresponding decrement factors of the inner surface of the roof under the optimum phase transition temperature are 0.033, 0.030, 0.033, 0.028 and 0.026, respectively. Compared with roof without PCM layer, the decrement factors are decreased by 85.90%, 87.12%, 85.78%, 87.83%, and 88.79%, and the peak temperatures of inner surface are decreased by 3.7, 4.0, 3.9, 3.8, and 3.7°C, respectively.

Energy saving potential of fresh air pre-handling system using shallow geothermal energy

To reduce the energy consumption for fresh air handling, a novel fresh air pre-handling system that fully exploits the shallow energy to precool and preheat fresh air is proposed in this study. The model of a typical all-air system with a pre-handling system is built on the TRNSYS platform. The energy saving potential of this fresh air pre-handling system is simulated based on the diverse climate of China. The results show that the ratios of the cumulated heat transfer capacity of the fresh air pre-handling system to the annual total of cooling and heating load range from 35% to 45% in the temperate zone and the subtropical zone, such as Shenyang, Beijing, and Shanghai, while the ratio in the tropical zone is approximately 10%. The energy saving rates are approximately 30% in most climate zones, but less than 5% in Guangzhou, the tropical climate zone. Moreover, the payback periods are within 4 years in the temperate and subtropical zones. However, the system is not economical in the tropical zone. All these results indicate that the fresh air pre-handling system with shallow geothermal energy is quite promising in most climate zones except in the hot summer and warm winter region with a tropical climate.

Regional suitability of climate-responsive technologies for buildings based on expert knowledge: A China study

Global warming and energy shortage have aroused great interests in climate-responsive technologies during recent years. They are required for buildings to positively adjust themselves to local climates in different climate regions. Incorrect selections of these technologies may cause resource waste and low technological efficiency. Therefore, the present study to explore the regional suitability of climate-responsive technologies was conducted with expert knowledge-based investigation in five kinds of climate regions in China, including severe cold region, cold region, hot summer & cold winter region, hot summer & warm winter region and temperate region. 71 climate-responsive technologies were identified for controlling climate physical features (i.e., temperature, humidity, sunlight, and ventilation). Suitability priorities as well as application levels were analyzed with expert knowledge-based rankings, based on which, a database of climate-responsive technologies for buildings in different climate regions was established. The most suitable general technologies in different climate regions were derived regarding temperature, humidity, sunlight, and ventilation. The findings illustrated universality and disparity of technology regional suitability and those with high suitability rankings are well-responded to different climate regions. The study provides guidance for selecting climate-responsive technologies according to their regional suitability. It promotes wide application of appropriate technologies in different climates and contributes to the formation of healthy climate-responsive buildings with highly suitable climate-responsive technologies.