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Buildings represent a large portion of total US energy usage. Religious facilities, which consume a significant percentage of the total floorspace and energy usage in the commercial sector, have generally not been the focus of efficiency studies or building energy audits. Religious facilities are characterized by unique patterns of occupancy and energy use. This paper presents the results of a long-term, in-depth energy study of architecturally similar church buildings in different climates in an effort to identify energy efficiency opportunities in religious buildings. Specifically, the paper details the experiment design and general usage trends from the buildings in different climates. A clear relationship between energy use and climate is evident, with HVAC and lighting systems consuming the majority of energy. An analysis on the prediction capabilities of using only a small subset of sensors to achieve similar results reveals the uncertainty of results by not metering all loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The data requirements of quota methods are summarized, and a city-scale database containing 670 credible government office buildings is established. • By comparing the processes, the results and applicability, the selection basis of quota methods under different conditions is refined. • A flow chart of the formulation process and method selection of city-level building energy consumption quotas is constructed. • It is proposed that special attention should be paid to the outliers, and the characteristics of outliers in Chongqing are summarized. Energy consumption quota policies are effective management measures to promote energy conservation and emission reduction in China. Cities need to choose an appropriate method to formulate local energy consumption quota standards. This paper is based on the data of 670 government office buildings in Chongqing and the selected quantile method (QM), quota-level method (QLM) and multiple linear regression (MLR) method, which are widely used in the formulation of city-level energy quotas. By comparing their interpretability, evaluation, consistency and stability, the application conditions and applicability of each method are summarized. MLR has the strongest explanatory power but the highest requirements for the technology and information dimensions. The QLM is more explanatory and stable than the QM and is more suitable for the initial stage of energy quota management. When using the QLM, we should consider scientific classifications and reasonable quota levels. Special attention should be given to "outliers" with abnormal evaluations of the quota results. The outliers in Chongqing are characterized as buildings that have been used for more than 10 years and have an area of less than 5000 m2. Finally, this paper constructed a flow chart of the formulation process and method selection to help policymakers better understand how to choose the most appropriate method and identify inefficient buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green building assessment methods, which play an essential role in promoting the development of green buildings, have attracted much attention in recent years. Many studies have been conducted on the development of new assessment methods and improvement of existing ones through comparative analysis. However, there is no comprehensive study that explicitly explores these efforts. For this purpose, a systematic review of the existing literature on green building assessment methods through comparative analysis is carried out in this paper. The main contributing authors as well as represented countries and areas are investigated. The comparison rules, including the number of comparative assessment methods and high frequency assessment methods, as well as the current status of comparison topics are explored. Finally, some research opportunities are proposed for future development. The research results would serve as a useful reference for both industry practitioners and academics who are interested in the development of green building assessment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper presents a field study of occupants’ thermal comfort and residential thermal environment conducted in an urban and a rural area in Hunan province, which is located in central southern China. The study was performed during the cold winter 2006. Twenty-eight naturally ventilated urban residences and 30 also naturally ventilated rural residences were investigated. A comparative analysis was performed on results from urban and rural residences. The mean thermal sensation vote of rural residences is approximately 0.4 higher than that of urban residences at the same operative temperature. Thermal sensation votes calculated by Fanger’s PMV model did not agree with these obtained directly from the questionnaire data. The neutral operative temperature of urban and rural residences is 14.0 and 11.5°C, respectively. Percentage of acceptable votes of rural occupants is higher than that of urban occupants at the same operative temperature. It suggests that rural occupants may have higher cold tolerance than urban occupants for their physiological acclimatization, or have relative lower thermal expectation than urban occupants because of few air-conditioners used in the rural area. The research will be instrumental to researchers to formulate thermal standards for naturally ventilated buildings in rural areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We selected three benchmarking methods to establish building energy benchmarking models based on a sample of 45 hotel buildings in China. • We compared the three benchmarking methods in terms of consistency, robustness and explanatory ability. • The energy efficiency performance obtained from the three methods were found to be inconsistent. • We came up with suggestions based on comparative analysis for policy-makers to develop building energy benchmarking programs. A reasonable building energy efficiency benchmarking program plays an important role in energy consumption control and supervision. Previous studies have focused on the process of establishing a single benchmarking method, but few have compared the performances and outcomes of different methods. To fill this gap, this paper selects three benchmarking methods—multiple linear regression (MLR) based on Energy Star, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and the descriptive statistics method (DSM) based on the national energy consumption standard in China—to develop benchmarking models. We demonstrate each method using data on the energy and building characteristics of 45 four- and five-star hotel buildings located in Chongqing, China. To compare the consistency, robustness and explanatory ability of the three methods, we first utilize the Spearman rank correlation analysis to test whether these methods have consistent energy efficiency ranks and then present Sankey diagrams to further reveal the interactions of the estimated energy efficiency grades obtained from the three methods. It is found that the results of DSM and SFA are most consistent, while MLR vs. SFA and MLR vs. DSM present significant differences in evaluating building energy performance. In addition, DSM is more robust for evaluating the ranks of sampled buildings, while SFA is more robust for evaluating energy efficiency grades. Furthermore, we discuss the explanatory ability of each method. In addition to the building characteristics, the design and operational characteristics of the HVAC system have great effects on building energy consumption. Finally, we present suggestions for policy-makers regarding the development and implementation of the building energy benchmarking program in Chongqing and for the management of buildings with different energy performances to further improve the energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]