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• Optimal Window-to-Wall Ratios were recommended for various building orientation. • Integrated models with different glazing area and orientation combinations were proposed. • Daylight factor, air temperature and air velocity were computed for each test scenario. • Three optimal intervals of Window-to-Wall Ratio were determined respectively. • Intersection interval of the three subsets is the optimal interval of Window-to-Wall Ratio. Since the ratio of glazing and opaque areas on building facade has significant impact on the indoor visual and thermal comforts as well as energy consumption, the optimal Window-to-Wall Ratio is necessary to be explored for the rural residences with a large quantity in China. Due to the traditional dwellings has been representative of housing samples among rural residences, Sizhai traditional dwellings situated in Zhejiang Province were chosen as the study buildings in this paper. The building model is rotated to 20° increments clockwise to create 18 building orientation intervals. Furthermore, the Window-to-Wall Ratio of front facade for the building model was divided into 8 intervals at increments of 0.1, from [0.1–0.2] to [0.8–0.9]. Through indoor environment simulation, the daylight factor, air temperature and air velocity were computed for the test scenarios with different building orientation and Window-to-Wall Ratio combinations. Three optimal intervals of Window-to-Wall Ratios at a series of building orientations corresponding to the daylight factor, mean maximum indoor temperature and mean indoor air velocity are determined respectively, based on the criteria of national codes and thermal comfort ranges. The intersection interval of the three subsets is the optimal interval of Window-to-Wall Ratio for the study building. In addition, for verifying the accuracy of research results, two validation techniques (i.e., comparison of experimental measurement data, and comparison of computational results from other simulation tools) were adopted in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper investigates a single-sided naturally ventilated buildings potential model considering number of factors in China. This model can be used to estimate potential of natural ventilation via local climate data and building parameters. The main goal of the model is to predict natural ventilation hours and hourly ventilation flow rate. In fluid model, formula of single-sided natural ventilation by coupling wind pressure and temperature difference was used to calculate air flow rate. Accordingly, the paper analyzed four typical cities in different climate region in China and calculated pressure difference Pascal hours (PDPH). The results show that single-sided ventilation has fewer adaptive comfort hours than two-sided ventilation and much less ventilation volume. This model provided quantitative information for early stage architectural natural ventilation design and building energy efficiency evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of residential energy consumption, the top-down approach and bottom-up approach have been developed to model and predict residential energy demand, and the bottom-up engineering model is a promising choice and an effective tool for urban planners and policymakers. However, unlike the existing building stock databases in some developed countries or regions, China's Pearl River Delta (PRD) region lacks such building databases. Thus, the study established a database of 120 residential districts in the PRD region, and developed typical models through the data of the collection, quantification and classification. In this paper, three typical residential district models have been defined, which was a supplement to previously develop seven typical residential building models. Moreover, four common family patterns in the PRD region were determined by literature research, the corresponding schedules and basic settings were developed subsequently for them. Finally, the simulations of the energy consumption of the three residential districts were conducted, whose energy consumption intensities were 28.43 kWh/m2a, 28.41 kWh/m2a and 28.24 kWh/m2a, respectively. The results of the simulation are similar to the results of the actual energy audit, which is considered that the typical residential buildings are representative yet simple-to-use energy model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]