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Passive daytime radiative cooling (PRDC) is a promising technology providing a cooling strategy that radiates heat directly into outer space without additional energy consumption, a crucial consideration in controlling construction energy consumption. However, the preparation of PRDC materials with controlled radiative properties is still challenging because the radiative interface must be maintained in a clean environment. Herein, a densely distributed porous hybrid aerogel with controlled radiative properties was fabricated using the wollastonite and cellulose as building blocks for building energy-saving applications. To do this, the cellulose pulp was obtained by using waste paper as raw material. Then, the hybrid aerogels, comprising paper cellulose and wollastonite particles, were fabricated by combining the acrylic acid polymers (PAA) bonding, freeze drying and vapor deposition modification. The radiative cooling hybrid aerogel exhibits high solar reflectivity (94.6%) and high atmospheric emissivity (95.1%), due to the laminated design of wollastonite randomly dispersed in the radiative hybrid aerogel. The excellent PRDC capability is also proven by outdoor tests where practical temperature difference is ~ 6.3 ℃ and the maximum cooling power of 147.4 Wm−2 under direct sun irradiance. Wettability test infers that the hybrid aerogel has a static water contact angle of 144.07° ± 2°, thereby indicating its hydrophobicity. In addition, based on the Energyplus simulation, the hybrid aerogel exhibits an average annual cooling energy saving of 8% in buildings across China. The excellent radiative cooling and self-cleaning properties of hybrid aerogel make it durable for long-term outdoor PRDC applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a temperature-adaptive radiative cooling (TARC) coating with simple preparation, cost effectiveness, and large-scale application based on a thermochromic powder. To determine the energy efficiency of the proposed TARC coating, the heat transfer on the surface of the TARC coating was analyzed. Then, a typical two-story residential building with a roof area of 258.43 m2 was modeled using EnergyPlus. Finally, the energy-saving potential and carbon emission reduction resulting from the application of the proposed TARC roof in buildings under different climates in China were discussed. The results showed that the average solar reflectivity under visible light wavelengths (0.38–0.78 μm) decreases from 0.71 to 0.37 when the TARC coating changes from cooling mode to heating mode. Furthermore, energy consumption can be reduced by approximately 17.8–43.0 MJ/m2 and 2.0–32.6 MJ/m2 for buildings with TARC roofs compared to those with asphalt shingle roofs and passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) roofs, respectively. This also leads to reductions in carbon emissions of 9.4–38.0 kgCO2/m2 and 1.0–28.9 kgCO2/m2 for the buildings located in the selected cities. To enhance building energy efficiency, TARC roofs and PDRC roofs are more suitable for use on buildings located in zones with high heating demands and high cooling demands, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Building climatic zoning is a prerequisite for implementing building energy efficiency technology, which can help code makers and architects have an accurate understanding of the local climatic conditions. It takes the extreme monthly average temperature as the zoning index in the existing climatic zoning of rural areas in China. There will be unreasonable design phenomena of insufficient or excessive thermal insulation for a building envelope in rural areas. Aiming at the above problems, this paper modifies the current zoning. This research established the cooling and heating degree-day indexes HDD14 and CDD30 based on the thermal comfort characteristics of rural occupants and used the threshold method to subdivide rural areas into eight sub-zones. The results show that the problem of insufficient or excessive thermal insulation in rural areas can be effectively solved by replacing the extreme monthly average temperature index with the degree day index and the annual cumulative building load can be reduced by 6.4% on average without increasing the insulation cost. After more detailed zoning, the variance within the group is reduced and it accurately describes climate diversity, which is conducive to implementing climate-responsive energy-saving design in each subzone. Practical application : The major purpose of this paper is to solve the problem of unreasonable climate zone boundaries specified in the existing Design Standard for Energy Efficiency of Rural Residential Buildings. The existing zoning has led to conflicts between the actual heating demand and the building envelope thermal parameter limits specified in the standard. This work redefines the boundaries of the existing map using more up-to-date weather data to provide the right guidance for architectural designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a model for analyzing the factors affecting building energy consumption based on qualitative analysis. Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method is used to decompose the driving factors causing China's building energy consumption change during 2005-2009. It is concluded that improvement of people's living condition and the increment of building area significantly lead to increase of energy consumption. Although the effect is relatively small, population and urbanization devote to energy consumption as well, while improvement of building efficiency is slow for the growth of energy consumption. From year 2005 to year 2009, energy saving of 121 million tons of standard coal, has been achieved by improving building energy efficiency. It decreases building energy consumption by 23%. Building energy efficiency played an important role in protecting the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) is considered as a valuable way to improve energy efficiency of high-energy-consumption buildings. Sustainable BEER helps integrate sustainable development strategy into existing buildings and retrofit projects. To ensure BEER projects that can fulfill the sustainable development strategy, Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is one possible market mechanism to deliver energy efficiency projects. Sustainable BEER under the EPC mechanism is a comprehensive system which involves the various demands of sustainable dimensions, performance criteria and groups of project success factors, making multi-criteria decisions become a challenging problem for decision makers. This paper aims to examine the interrelationships of sustainable BEER by focusing on an existing hotel building. EPC mechanism is applied in the case study and an effective Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach is also employed in the research. The result indicates that sustainable BEER in hotel buildings under the EPC mechanism is mainly determined by project control mechanism, available technology, organizing capacity of the team leader, trust, accurate Measurement and Verification (M&V), and team workers' technical skills. Decision makers should dedicate more attention to these aspects. From the research findings, several policy implications are proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Building energy efficiency retrofit (BEER) not only provides excellent opportunities to reduce overall energy consumption of buildings in a city but also encourages environmental protection, the rational use of resources, and occupants' healthcare, which all contribute towards the sustainability of existing buildings. However, there is a lack of effective performance indicators to measure the sustainability of BEER projects. The aim of this paper is to formulate a list of key performance indicators (KPI) for the sustainability assessment of BEER in hotel buildings. Design/methodology/approach – First, a literature review and in-depth interviews with industry experts and academic researchers were conducted, which filtered the performance indicators for assessing sustainability. Second, a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from various groups of experts to analyze the significance of the selected performance indicators. Finally, a model based on fuzzy set theory was designed to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the sustainability of BEER. Findings – Eight KPIs were identified based on fuzzy set theory in this study. They are: quality performance, hotel energy management, cost performance, project profitability, energy consumption and resources saving, health and safety, stakeholder satisfaction, and innovation and improvement. Practical implications – The KPIs of sustainability of BEER identified for hotel buildings in China in this study can be useful reference for other similar research. However, with the different requirements for building types and building ownerships, the KPIs of sustainability of BEER for different buildings may be variable. The findings in this study may not be directly relevant to other types of building. Originality/value – Key performance indicators for the sustainability assessment of BEER in hotel buildings in China are identified and analyzed in this study. The KPIs can help decision-makers to identify an optimal solution between alternatives, which presents the maximum sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China consumes more energy and emits more carbon dioxide than any other country. The building sector accounts for nearly 1/3 of the total national energy consumption in China; thus, it is critical to find a solution for improving buildings’ energy efficiency. Under the market-oriented mechanism, constrained by the energy performance contracting (EPC) mode, energy service companies (ESCOs) play an important role in improving energy efficiency for high-energy-consumption industries, including the building sector. The aim of this study is to determine the strategy for boosting the building ESCO industry. By conducting a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis, this paper presented the status of the building ESCO industry in China and proposed alternative strategies. By utilizing a conventional multi-criteria decision-making method, namely, the Analytic Network Process (ANP), this study provides a quantitative basis to analytically determine the ranking of the factors in SWOT analysis and select the best strategy to promote the development of the building ESCO industry. The results showed that the ANP-SWOT is a viable and highly capable methodology that provides invaluable insights for strategic management decisions in the building ESCO industry, and a set of strategies for promoting ESCO development in the building sector were proposed based on this approach. [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]

At present, many industrial parks promote the local economic growth, causing environmental pollution and waste of resources. Based on analyzing the 23 factors affecting industrial parks’ building energy efficiency and environmental protection by conducting a questionnaire survey and applying the principal component analysis (PCA) with SPSS 19.0 software as auxiliary tool, this paper identifies the 6 key influencing factors such as energy resources of the industrial park, energy recycling (waste heat) of the industrial park, renewable energy utilization of the industrial park, investment in the aspect of energy efficiency and environmental protection of industrial park, technology development and introduction in energy efficiency and environmental protection of industrial park. Some countermeasures and suggestions for promoting the industrial parks’ building energy efficiency and environmental protection are put forward, such as perfecting laws, incentive policies and implementation mechanisms of energy efficiency and environmental protection, and optimizing the parks’ energy structure and effectively utilizing resources. The research results are helpful to promote high-quality economic growth of Shenyang’s industrial parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero-energy buildings have attracted interest worldwide as they consume less energy and can alleviate energy shortages caused by rapid economic development. This paper presents a review of the research and development regarding zero-energy buildings in China. First, it briefly introduces the evolution of the definition of zero-energy buildings and discusses the key influencing factors of such buildings in China. Then, envelope design, selection of mechanical and electrical equipment, and solar energy utilization aspects of zero-energy buildings are examined. Additionally, this paper discusses the development and application of zero-energy buildings in China, including project types, design methods, energy resources allocation, and energy operation management. Finally, this paper analyzes China's policies for zero-energy buildings, including incentive mechanisms, laws and regulations, and problems encountered, and provides suggestions for promoting zero-energy buildings in China. We expect this review to identify gaps and future directions for research and development, which will lead to new technologies, methods, policies, and standards that can be applied to zero-energy buildings. • Research and development of zero energy building in China is comprehensively reviewed. • Influencing factors and relevant zero-energy building design components are examined. • Development and application of zero-energy buildings in China are examined. • Zero energy policies in China are analyzed and suggestions for the promotion of zero-energy buildings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive houses have strong thermal insulation and airtightness of doors and windows, and they are generally used in cold climates. This case study aims to evaluate the energy-saving potential of this technology in the hot-summer and cold-winter areas (Cf in Köppen climate classification) of China. The results show that after enhancing the thermal insulation and airtightness, the energy consumption in winter significantly decreased by 62% overall. However, the energy consumption of cooling in the transition season and summer increased, which is caused by overheating. Hybrid ventilative cooling and shading can solve this problem. In particular, when the indoor temperature range is set to the adaptive thermal comfort of natural ventilation, the energy consumption from air conditioner cooling can be greatly reduced by 81% overall. Passive houses combined with ventilative cooling has significant application value in this climate zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate is a key element in building design. The determination of adequate climate zoning is crucial for achieving building energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. In this study, a cluster analysis method was applied to develop new thermal climate zones for building envelope thermal design in China. In total, three different cluster analysis methods, including k-means, average-linkage, and Ward's clustering, were considered. The analysis indicated that the average-linkage clustering was more appropriate for this study, and the elbow method could not accurately determine the best number of categories of average-linkage clustering. Further analysis showed that the unsupervised cluster processes may generate an unavoidable redundancy category and, to obtain precise results, supervision may be necessary in some contexts. Finally, China was classified into 10 climate zones. The North China plain and Qinghai–Tibet plateau are classified into two independent climate zones, and Turpan and Bayanbulak were classified into two newly defined climate zones different from their surrounding area in the new definition. Quantitative analysis indicated that the new zones were more precise when compared to the current ones, which can provide more precise climate information and contribute to formulating more precise standards and policies related to the thermal design of building envelopes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glazing is currently regarded as a promising building material with a wide range of benefits. Photovoltaic combined vacuum glazing is a relatively new innovative concept in BIPV glazing. On the other hand, photovoltaic combined hybrid vacuum glazing (PVCHVG) is a rarely studied topic in which an air gap exists between vacuum glazing and photovoltaic glazing to form an insulated glazing unit. This paper investigates the overall energy-saving performance of a CdTe-based semi-transparent PVCHVG. A dynamic simulation model was developed and validated with an outdoor experiment to explore the energy-saving performance of the PVCHVG under five different climate conditions in China, and the results were compared with commonly used window systems. The results indicated good insulation properties against both heat loss and heat gain due to the combined action of vacuum glazing and semi-transparent photovoltaic glazing. Compared to clear single-glazing and double-glazing window systems, PVCHVG can save overall energy consumption up to 59.39% and 39.97% in heating-dominated region, and 76.33% and 73.766% in cooling-dominated region, respectively. Furthermore, the PVCHVG window system generated electricity with a good performance ratio and total system efficiency ranging from 85.7% to 85.78% and 7.45%–7.55%, respectively, considering five climate conditions. • A CdTe-based STPV glazing combined hybrid vacuum glazing is investigated. • A dynamic simulation model is developed and validated with an outdoor experiment. • It poses inferior heat loss and heat gain in 5 distinct climate conditions in China. • The energy-saving potential is better in cooling than heating-dominated regions. • Key performance parameters for the window PV system are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with a comprehensive analysis of building energy efficiency policies in light of improvements in energy performance, living standards and climate change mitigation in China's built environment. In recent years, China has added about 1.7 billion square meters of new floor space in both urban and rural areas on an annual basis. In 2010, the total area of existing buildings in China was approximately 48.6 billion square meters, nearly twice the total of existing buildings areas in the European Union. How to improve energy efficiency in the soaring number of new buildings and accelerate the retrofit of the huge number of existing buildings are two daunting challenges currently facing China in terms of energy security and climate change mitigation at a global level. China has gradually altered the building energy efficiency policy portfolio, from a purely regulatory approach with a mandatory building code at the initial stage to voluntary green buildings initiatives. This paper is structured as a critical assessment of building energy efficiency policies for new and existing buildings. Both strengths and weaknesses of the implemented energy efficiency policies are detailed in each of the studied areas. It also discusses the dilemma of public games in green and sustainable buildings production in the context of Chinese economic development and societal transition. The analysis emphasises the importance of guaranteeing the consistency between policies in the current regulatory framework to maximise the effectiveness of energy efficiency policies in the built environment in China. For this, it is necessary to articulate building energy efficiency policies implementation and broader energy and climate policies. This integrative study provides both a retrospective assessment and prospective direction of building energy efficiency policy development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracts China's building energy efficiency design standards have been always treated as the base of national energy conservation planning and industrial investment. However, they cannot fully achieve the expected benefits due to the energy rebound effect. This paper verifies the energy rebound effect in China's urban and rural residential buildings based on the LA-AIDS theory, and further estimates the building energy conservation by counterfactual analysis, catching the specific influences of rebound effect on building energy conservation and the corresponding residential building energy conservation potentials of China. The empirical results reveal that: (i) The rebound effect in the rural residential buildings is much larger than that in the urban residential buildings, where presenting the “back-fire” effect. (ii) The rebound effect in the rural residential buildings is weakening while it is enhancing in the urban residential buildings. (iii) Nationally, if energy policies including price polices, technological improvements as well as some other measures were implemented to avoid the rebound effect, we could have conserved about 20% electricity consumption in China's residential buildings each year. The magnitude increased by time to the highest level (107.66 GWh) in 2011, equivalent to the CO 2 emission reduction of 0.1 billion tons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) is an attractive way toward low carbon buildings through improving energy efficiency of high-energy-consumption existing buildings. Sustainable development strategy has been reaching many spheres of human activities. Sustainable BEER aims to integrate the sustainable development concept into existing buildings and retrofit projects. To ensure BEER projects that can fulfill the sustainable development strategy, a project delivery model is one major consideration and Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is one possible market mechanism to deliver energy efficiency projects. This paper aims to use Analytic Network Process (ANP) to develop a model for sustainable BEER under the EPC mechanism. Key performance indicators (KPIs) for sustainable BEER in hotel buildings and critical success factors (CSFs) for EPC have been identified based on a set of interview and questionnaire survey previously conducted by the authors. In this study, the relationships among sustainable dimensions, KPIs, and CSFs are identified through a focus group discussion. Finally, an ANP model is built based on the data collected in the group discussion using the SuperDecision software. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Hainan province is the only tropical and island province in China, with the unique climatic and geographical features. It has a different energy performance in public buildings from those in the inland areas. This paper investigated the current situation of energy consumption of the sampled public buildings, including 26 hotels, 24 office buildings and 7 department stores, through analyzing utility billing data, on-site survey and measurement, and site operational records. The breakdowns of energy consumption found out that the electricity dominated the energy consumption for all the sampled buildings and the air conditioning system played a key role in the energy consumption of major building services. By analyzing the main factors for building energy consumption, the annual average energy use indexes were calculated to be 141.63kWh/m2, 87.70kWh/m2, and 166.95kWh/m2 for hotels, office buildings and department stores, respectively. Besides, the comparison between Hainan province and other areas revealed that the building energy consumption of this tropical province was at a low level. Because indoor environment quality can influence the health and work efficiency of humans in buildings, field tests on the indoor environment quality were also carried out, and the performance of indoor environment quality was rated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons for ever growing energy consumption in buildings and to give enhanced supervision strategies for reduction of building energy consumption compared to regular ones. A case study of Ningbo city was used to make a detail analysis. Several factors were determined as the reasons for ever growing building energy consumption including climate change, household electricity load increase, the growth of real estate, fast-growing household electrical appliances, high energy consumption in existing buildings, changes in industrial structure and the lack of enhanced government supervision. Then the discussion of suitable countermeasures shows that only enhanced supervision strategies are currently applicable. Finally, it is concluded that enhanced government supervision strategies, including the establishment of a strict control system for new built buildings through information integration and encryption, establishing an energy efficiency supervision system of large-scale public building and a carrot-and-stick approach with added expert checklist for the building application of renewable energy, showed great advantages in promoting building energy efficiency in Ningbo, compared with other cities. These supervision strategies are applicable in other cities as they are in the similar situations in the enforcement of building energy efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, in contrast to the usual rough estimation, we present a model to simulate and evaluate the direct, indirect economic and environmental impacts of the implementation of building energy efficiency standards on Chinese economic system and environment by 12 indicators in two scenarios. Four indicators are used to evaluate the direct economic impact degree, five indicators are used to evaluate the direct environmental impact degree, three indicators are used to evaluate the indirect economic impact degree of 34 sectors and the whole Chinese economic system. This research makes it possible to link developments in the implementation of building energy efficiency standards with environmental and economic structure change. The most important finding is that the implementation of building energy efficiency standards can reduce a large amount of pollutants emissions and increase the GDP at the same time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The People''s Republic of China and its 1.3 billion people have experienced a rapid economic growth in the past two decades. China''s urbanisation ratio rose from around 20% in the early 1980s to 45% in 2007 [China Urban Research Committee. Green building. Beijing: Chinese Construction Industrial Publish House; 2008. ISBN 978-7-112-09925-2.]. The large volume and rapid speed of building construction rarely have been seen in global development and cause substantial pressure on resources and the environment. Government policy makers and building professionals, including architects, building engineers, project managers and property developers, should play an important role in enhancing the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the building energy efficiency process in forming the sustainable urban development. This paper addresses the emerging issues relating to building energy consumption and building energy efficiency due to the fast urbanisation development in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper attempts to analyse the role of building energy efficiency (BEE) in China in addressing climate change mitigation. It provides an analysis of the current situation and future prospects for the adoption of BEE technologies in Chinese cities. It outlines the economic and institutional barriers to large-scale deployment of the sustainable, low-carbon, and even carbon-free construction techniques. Based on a comprehensive overview of energy demand characteristics and development trends driven by economic and demographic growth, different policy tools for cost-effective CO2 emission reduction in the Chinese construction sector are described. We propose a comprehensive approach combining building design and construction, and the urban planning and building material industries, in order to drastically improve BEE during this period of rapid urban development. A coherent institutional framework needs to be established to ensure the implementation of efficiency policies. Regulatory and incentive options should be integrated into the policy portfolios of BEE to minimise the efficiency gap and to realise sizeable carbon emissions cuts in the next decades. We analyse in detail several policies and instruments, and formulate relevant policy proposals fostering low-carbon construction technology in China. Specifically, Our analysis shows that improving building energy efficiency can generate considerable carbon emissions reduction credits with competitive price under the CDM framework. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Typical meteorological years (TMYs) for 60 cities in the five major climatic zones (severe cold, cold, hot summer and cold winter, hot summer and warm winter, mild) in China were investigated. Long term (1971–2000) measured weather data such as dry bulb and dew point temperatures, wind speed and global solar radiation were gathered and analysed. A total of seven climatic indices were used to select the 12 typical meteorological months (TMMs) that made up the TMY for each city. In general, the cumulative distribution functions of the TMMs selected tended to follow their long term counterparts quite well. There was no persistent trend in any particular years being more representative than the others, though 1978 and 1982 tended to be picked most often. This paper presents the work and its findings. Future work on the assessment of TMYs in building energy simulation is also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Because of irreversibility on building construction, building energy efficiency design is more depended on simulation technology. Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China also stated that China's building energy consumption accounted for 27.5% of the total energy consumption in 2012. Energy consumption is simulated based on the heat transfer principle of building wall, windows, roof and ventilation. Improved measurements are proposed for simulation cases. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning energy consumption of benchmark and energy efficiency building are simulated based on EnergyPlus software. The most effective energy-saving measurements of energy efficiency building are improving air-conditioning system performance and thermal properties of wall and window. The results show that the energy efficiency ratio of refrigeration system should be more than three and energy-saving ratio is about 30%. Heat transfer coefficient of wall and window should be less than 1.0 W/m2k- and 2.0, W/m2k- the energy-saving ratio is more than 16% and 10%, respectively. The sum energy-saving ratios of refrigeration system, wall and window are about 56%. The energy efficiency ratios of roof and air exchanges number are not very obvious. Some energy-saving technologies with high cost are put forward based on simulation results which provide effective ways for building energy efficiency in Guangdong province, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yangtze River Valley is situated within the Hot Summer and Cold Winter zone, and residents in this region of China would require HVAC system to alleviate thermal comfort conditions, although this is tempered by the Design Code (DBJ50-071-2007) for energy efficiency. A 1-year survey of about 200 residential homes was carried out in eight cities covering the breadth of the region. The acceptable temperature range for the residents in this area was 16.3—28.1°C and the thermal neutral temperature was found to be 27.6°C in summers and 17.5°C in winters. People in different area can vary in their adaptability and comfortableness. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the national comfort parameter introduced in the Code for Design of Heating and Ventilation and Air Conditioning (GB50019-2003). The results found that if air-conditioning system was set to 27.5°C instead of 26°C as required by GBJ19-87: Design Standard of Heating and Ventilation and Air Conditioning, a 16.5% saving of energy consumption could be achieved. The findings demonstrated the role of natural ventilation in the expansion of the thermal comfort zone for the residents, especially during the summer seasons. A climatic adaptability model has been established by this study to contribute to the passive climatic design strategies for a better economic and energy efficiency of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's regular energy statistics does not include the building sector, and data on building energy demand is included in other types of energy consumption in the Energy Balance Sheet (EBS). Therefore data on building energy demand is not collected based on statistics, but rather calculated or estimated by various approaches in China. This study aims at developing and testing China's building energy statistics by applying an adapted EBS. The advantage of the adapted EBS is that statistical data is from the regular statistical system and no additional statistical efforts are needed. The research result shows that the adapted EBS can be included in China regular energy statistical system and can be standardized in a transparent way. Testing of the adapted EBS shows that China's building energy demand has shown an annual increase of 7.6% since 2001, and a lower contribution to the total energy demand as compared to the developed world. There is also a close link to lifestyle and living standard while industrial energy demand is mainly driven by economy and decoupling of building energy demand with increasing of building floor area, this is due to a considerable improvement of building energy efficiency. The adapted EBS creates a method for China conducting statistics of building energy consumption at the sector level in a uniform way and serves as the basis for any sound building energy efficiency policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]