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Can the ASHRAE Standard 169 zoning method be applied to country-level energy-efficient building design in China?

  • Research Article
  • Building Thermal, Lighting, and Acoustics Modeling
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Abstract

In current building thermal climate design zones of China, the zoning indicators only include temperature elements without considering the regional difference of air humidity. Therefore, building thermal design strategies in continental climate zone with low relative humidity and marine climate zone with high relative humidity cannot be distinguished by the current building thermal zoning standards. ASHRAE Standard 169 proposes dual definitions for moisture and thermal climate zones, and this method can be extended to the world, including the so-called “China Climate Zones Map”. However, the moisture climate zoning criterion is unsuitable for China’s climate characteristics after climate analysis and building performance evaluation. In present work, a novel building moisture climate zoning method is proposed. The bioclimatic chart was utilized for extracting the outline of building climate through the Gaussian KDE method. Hence, the building moisture climate was classified, the zoning indicator was obtained, and a country-level climate zones map for China was established. The results indicated that the global information matrix served as a helpful guide and reference for planning at the national level. Annual precipitation could be used as a zoning indicator to accurately reflect the regional differences of building moisture climate in China. The approach can provide new thoughts for improving the climate zoning system in current energy-efficient building design standards of China to assist the ultra-low energy consumption target.

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Data availability

The processes of TMY file generation, building energy simulations, and building climate outline extraction have been produced using Python 3.9.2. The codes are available upon request from the author.

Abbreviations

P :

annual precipitation (mm)

P h·d :

hourly precipitation (mm)

P i·m :

monthly precipitation (mm)

P max·win :

maximum monthly precipitation in the winter half year (mm)

P min·sum :

minimum monthly precipitation in the summer half year (mm)

T :

annual average temperature (°C)

T avg :

daily average temperature (°C)

T avg·cold :

average temperature in the coldest month (°C)

T avg·di :

average diurnal temperature range (°C)

T avg·warm :

average temperature in the warmest month (°C)

T h·d :

hourly temperature (°C)

T i·m :

average monthly temperature (°C)

T max :

daily maximum temperature (°C)

T min :

daily minimum temperature (°C)

AP:

atmosphere pressure

ASHRAE:

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers

CDDn :

cooling degree-days base n °C (°C·day)

DBT:

dry bulb temperature

HDDn :

heating degree-days base n °C (°C·day)

RH:

relative humidity

SSD:

sunshine duration

TMY:

typical meteorological year

WS:

wind speed

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51838011), the National Key Research and Development Program of China during the 14th Five-Year Plan (No. 2022YFC3802700 and No. 2022YFC3801401) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52078407).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Green Building, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710055, China

    Shangyu Wang, Liu Yang, Xiangxin Meng, Kailin Lyu, Qimeng Cao & Yan Liu

  2. School of Architecture, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710055, China

    Shangyu Wang, Liu Yang, Xiangxin Meng, Kailin Lyu, Qimeng Cao & Yan Liu

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  1. Shangyu Wang
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  2. Liu Yang
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Correspondence to Liu Yang or Yan Liu.

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Wang, S., Yang, L., Meng, X. et al. Can the ASHRAE Standard 169 zoning method be applied to country-level energy-efficient building design in China?. Build. Simul. 16, 1041–1058 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1017-1

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