A Study on Energy-Saving Technologies Optimization towards Nearly Zero Energy Educational Buildings in Four Major Climatic Regions of China

Abstract

An educational building is a kind of public building with a high density of occupants and high energy consumption. Energy-saving technology utilization is an effective measure to achieve high-performance buildings. However, numerous studies are greatly limited to practical application due to their strong regional pertinence and technical simplicity. This paper aims to further optimize various commonly used technologies on the basis of the current national standards, and to individually establish four recommended technology selection systems corresponding to four major climatic regions for realizing nearly zero energy educational buildings (nZEEBs) in China. An educational building was selected as the case study. An evaluation index of energy-saving contribution rate (ECR) was proposed for measuring the energy efficiency of each technology. Thereafter, high energy efficiency technologies were selected and implemented together in the four basic cases representing different climatic regions. The results showed that the total energy-saving rate in severe cold regions increased by 70.74% compared with current national standards, and about 60% of the total energy-saving rate can be improved in cold regions. However, to realize nZEEBs in hot summer and cold winter regions as well as in hot summer and warm winter regions, photovoltaic (PV) technology needs to be further supplemented.

A Study Using the Hybrid Fuzzy AHP&TOPSIS Method in the Conversion of a LEED-Certified Education Building into a Nearly Zero-Energy Building in a Cold Climate

“…Wang and Zhao [9] investigated the effect of external walls and roofs with different heat transfer coefficients (U) on building energy consumption and determined that increasing energy efficiency in the building envelope affected energy saving. Zhao and Du [10] aimed to approach education buildings nZEB by optimizing national technologies in China and using four recommended technologies for the four main climate regions. They also determined that the total energy saving rate in very cold regions increased by 70.74 % compared to the current national standards and approximately 60 % of the total energy saving rate could be improved in cold regions.…”

Thermal and flow resistance characteristics of a parallel-pipe type natural heat transfer air-conditioning terminal device for nearly zero energy buildings

“…1 In order to reduce the building energy consumption, much research has been done on nearly zero energy buildings (NZEB). 2–12 As the space heating or cooling load can be lowered significantly by proper load reducing measures, air-conditioning terminal devices in NZEB need not be the same as traditional ones. The authors proposed a radiant-convective air-conditioning terminal device with parallel pipes in a previous study.…”