DISCUSSION OF SOME ENERGY SAVING STRATEGIES AND PRACTICE OF THE CONTEMPORARY CHINESE APARTMENT BUILDING DESIGN

摘要

Along with the steady economic growth and the course of urbanization, more than 300 million square meters of new apartments are constructed every year in China, and the number is still increasing. At the same time, the energy consumption per square meter is about 2 times more than that of many developed countries under similar climate conditions. This implies a huge amount of energy consumption and great potential for energy conservation. Apparently, discussion of energy saving strategies for Chinese apartment building design is an important task and can be very much beneficial to China and the world. This paper firstly introduces the general climate and apartment building features in zone 2 (Figure 1) in China. Then, it analyses the data collected from a recent survey in Xi’an city, which reveals that the indoor thermal environment of current apartment buildings are unsatisfactory, so more research and design efforts need to be engaged to find out effective methods and strategies not only to save energies, but also to improve thermal environment in such buildings. Finally, by analysing recent building examples, the paper suggested some strategies to save energy as well as improving thermal performance of apartment buildings in the researched areas in China.