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This paper investigates the climate change impact on cooling energy consumption of office buildings in four major architectural climate zones in China. The results show that there are apparent differences in the responses of monthly or yearly cooling loads to climatic change in different climates. Dominant factors affecting monthly cooling loads change from dry bulb temperature (DBT) to wet bulb temperature (WBT) with the climate zones changing from severe cold to hot. The yearly cooling load was mainly afftectd by DBT in severe cold climate, whereas the WBT had the dominant effect in the other climates. With the continuous warming climate, the yearly cooling load did not rise significantly for any climate zone except for severe cold climate zone where cooling load had a significant increase ( p  < 0.01). More importantly, the cooling load showed a weak decrease in Guangzhou. These results suggest that different measurements for buildings cooling energy conservation should be made in different climate zones. The humidity effect should be fully considered to improve buildings energy efficiency, especially in the hot climate zones. The continuous increase of temperature in the future does not necessarily increase cooling loads of buildings in the cold, hot summer & cold winter and hot summer & warm winter climate zones, and change trendency of humidity in the future need to be considered to predict cooling energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A lecture theatre with dimension 16m×8.4m×3.6m located at Roorkee (28.58°N, 77.20°E) in the northern region of India, is selected to calculate the monthly and annual cooling load (kWh) and cooling capacity of air conditioning system by a computer simulation. The paper also presents the results of a study investigating the effect of different glazing systems on windows and the reduction in building cooling load. DesignBuilder software has been used for the computer simulation for calculating the cooling load. The paper aims to investigate the reduction in thermal gains and cooling load requirements by varying the U-values of different glazing types, insulating the ceiling, providing cool roofs, interior and exterior insulation on walls, and replacing the conventional fluorescent tube lamp (FTL) by energy efficient compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). Installation of false ceiling, wall insulation, different glazing types and lighting systems are cost effective with normalized annual saving ranging from 17% to 19.8% from this retrofitting project. Furthermore, the study also highlights the potential of reducing the emission of CO2 and equivalent carbon credit. Retrofitting techniques strongly influence the level of energy saving, although the payback period is generally quite long of order 8years. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The impact of natural ventilation of a roof cavity on improvement of the thermal environment and reduction of cooling load of a factory building is discussed. A computer program was developed with the logic in a companion paper to observe the effect of cavity ventilation on the operative temperature of the occupied zone in the factory. Comparisons were made between factories with a cavity roof and a single roof in the Japanese climate. Results showed that the cavity roof was superior to the single roof in lowering the operative temperature by about 4.4°C. When the factory was air conditioned, the cooling load reduction reached approximately 50% during the summer to maintain an operative temperature of 26°C. Results showed that a naturally ventilated cavity roof has excellent potential for improving the indoor thermal environment and energy savings of factory buildings without complicated cooling installations and life time power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]