The heating demand clearly differs from stage to stage: First, in stage (I), the heating demand is relatively low and so is the financial potential of the household since only one inhabitant is em- ployed and they also have to take care of a newborn. In stage (II) the heating demand is more un- predictable, since both parents spend a lot of time at work causing the heating demand to strong- ly depend on how the child uses the heating system. The overall household income is now higher than before since two people are working. In stage (III) the heating demand reaches its minimum, since all three inhabitants spend most of their daily time at work. At the same time, the financial potential of the household is at its peak, due to the triple income of the inhabitants. In stage (IV), the heating demand suddenly increases because the parents spend a lot of time at home and have increased thermal preferences, while the child still spends most of its time at work. But at this point, the income of the household is much lower than before since there is only one income source present. This course of events shows a possible explanation for the low modernisation rate today. The perceived need for a modernisation (i.e. the heating demand) is at imbalance with a household’s financial potential for undergoing such a modernisation. At the stage of its highest overall income, a family has the lowest heating demand and therefore may not want to pay for such an investment. However, in the next stage of their lives, the heating demand sharply rises, but now the family might not have the financial potential to modernise their home anymore. Figure 5 also includes two different building types with significantly different thermal insulation properties, which allows to qualitatively assess the financial impact of an energy efficient refurbishment.
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Professor, Zhaojun Wang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, [email protected]
Abstract
Purpose / Context - The outdoor climate in Harbin is more severely colder than German.
There- fore, it is important to study indoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort in Harbin passive buildings by applying Germany technology. However, few studies were reported on this topic.
Methodology / Approach - A field measurement on thermal environment was carried out in a passive residential building in Harbin, as well as a subjective survey on residents’
thermal re- sponse. 25 residents in 21 apartments volunteered as the participants in this study. Among them, a continuous monitoring was conducted in 7 apartments.
Results - The results show that the mean indoor temperature was 26.2℃, which was over higher than the upper limit of ASHRAE 55-2013. The average relative humidity was 35.9%, close to the lower limit. There was a small temperature difference between the indoor air temperature and the inner surface temperature of the exterior wall, which indicates a good insulation performance and reduces discomfort induced by cold radiation.
50% residents confided that the indoor environment was over warm, and they usually adjusted clothes to the environment. The neutral temperature was 24.2℃, and 90%
acceptability temperature was 23.2~25.2℃, a width of 2 ℃, which indicates a weak adaptation and tolerability for the residents.
Key Findings / Implications - A lower indoor temperature was recommended in operation. Not only could residents’ thermal comfort be improved, but also the energy consumption was reduced further.
Originality – Thermal environment and thermal comfort in a Harbin passive residential building was researched.
Keywords - Passive house, Thermal environment, Thermal comfort, Thermal adaptation, Field study, Severe cold area
Yuchen Ji Ph D. Candidate
Harbin Institute of Technology China
1. Introduction
Since 1970s, some researchers in developed countries put forward the term –“zero energy build- ing” (ZEB) or “nearly zero-energy building”, as well as some similar definition (Esbensen and Korsgaard, 1977; Voss et al., 1996; Torcellini et al., 2006). Soon later, a lot of demonstration pro- ject were built up. In recent years, low-energy buildings were constructed in China.
The technology and practice of passive house was derived in German. In 1991, the first passive architecture was constructed in Darmstadt. This kind of architecture is distinguished for good en- velope insulation performance, enhanced air tightness of doors and windows, much less de- pendence on fossil energy, and some advanced passive technologies used to improve comforta- ble indoor climate, such as heat recovery. Energy consumption for heating and cooling in passive houses is far lower than that in normal buildings (Heinze and Voss, 2009).
A passive residential building was constructed as the first demonstration project in Harbn in 2013, China, which was cooperated by China and German.
Harbin is located in the severe cold area of China. The heating period lasts for 6 months. The heating energy consumption accounts for a large part of building consumption. The outdoor cli- mate in Harbin is more severely colder than German. Therefore, it is important to study indoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort in the Harbin passive building by applying Ger- man technology. However, few studies were reported on this topic. This paper introduced the recent measurement and subjective results in the passive residential building.
2. Methodology
In the winter of 2015-2016, a field measurement on the thermal environment was carried out in the Harbin passive residential building, as well as a subjective survey on residents’ thermal response.
The environmental measurements and subjective questionnaires were simultaneously conducted during the investigation. 25 residents in 21 apartments (age ranges from 25 to 84, with an average of 40.2 years, gender ratio is nearly 1:1) volunteered as the participants in this study. Among them, a continuous monitoring was conducted in 7 apartments. All the participants have fully adapted to the local climate.
2.1 Measurement
The indoor air temperature and relative humidity (RH), air speed, globe temperature, inner surface temperature and outdoor air temperature, relative humidity and air speed were measured during the field investigation.
The indoor air temperature and humidity were continuously monitored per 5 min using self- record- ing loggers which were placed at about 1.0 m above the floor. The indoor air temperature and humidity, globe temperature and air speed were measured near the residents. The surface tem- peratures were measured at five points in exterior wall and window, and the average value is considered as the surface temperature. In addition, a digital self-recorded thermometer was placed outside for monitoring outdoor temperature and humidity.
In the study, a self-recorded thermometer (WSZY-1A), a self-recorded globe thermometer (HWZY-1), and a hot- wire anemometer (Testo 425) and an infrared thermometer (Testo 830-T1) were used. The test instruments and precision refer to Wang et al. (2014).
Vote Scale
Thermal Sensation -3 cold, -2 cool, -1 slightly cool, 0 neutral, +1 slightly warm, +2 warm, +3 hot
Thermal Preference -1 cooler, 0 no change, +1 warmer
Thermal Comfort 0 comfortable, +1 slightly uncomfortable, +2 uncomfortable, +3 very uncomfortable, +4 unbearable
Thermal Acceptability acceptable, unacceptable 2.2 Subjective questionnaire
Paper questionnaires were adopted. The subjective survey included the following:
1) Residents’ background information (gender, age, education, etc.), clothing and activity.
2) The thermal responses of subjects, such as thermal sensation, comfort, expectation and acceptability.
The vote scales of thermal response are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Vote scales of thermal response
A total of 44 valid questionnaires were collected.