Effects of Geometric Parameters on Energy Performance of Residential Buildings in Severely Cold Areas

摘要

The energy demands for heating have been increasing rapidly in Northern China. To improve the energy efficiency of residential buildings in Changchun, a major city in Northeast China, a residential building model is constructed in the DesignBuilder software and used to assess the effects of geometric parameters including floor height and window-to-wall ratio on the energy performance of residential buildings. The simulation is conducted with the parameters of both traditional plan and alternative plans to calculate the energy consumption of each plan and evaluate the parameters. Based on the simulation results, the most optimal geometric parameters of the residential building model are proposed. The floor height of 2.8 m gives the highest energy-saving efficiency in the tested range. The optimal window-to-wall ratios of the north wall, south wall, east wall, and west wall of the building model are determined to be 0.25, 0.45, 0.30, and 0.30, respectively. Our study identifies an efficient passive design plan upon the geometric parameters of residential buildings in severely cold areas and provides a theoretical reference for decision-making in the early design stage.