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The significance for solar heat gain on the indoor thermal environment of passive houses in cold areas in China

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Abstract

In the passive house system in cold regions today, the strategies focus on reducing energy loss by enhancing the thermal insulation performance of the building’s envelope. Yet, under the specific background, the application of passive house evaluation system lacks emphasis on the significance of solar heat gain. In this paper, two independent passive houses in cold areas in China were selected as research objects, which had almost the same geographic locations, building shapes, and floor plans, through simulation and on-site measurement to discuss the influence of solar heat gain on non-heating sunny and overcast winter days on the indoor thermal environment. The result shows that the house which had a weaker envelope in thermal insulation performance but more solar heat gain performed better than the one which had a stronger envelope but less solar heat gain. It indicates that in the passive house system in cold areas in China, solar heat gain is of great significance and has equal status with the thermal insulation performance of envelopes, which has significant reference value for the early stages of passive house designing and the evaluation criteria.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by a project in the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number 2016YFC0700200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Enliang Zhao, Li Zhao & Zhengnan Zhou

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  1. Enliang Zhao
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  2. Li Zhao
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  3. Zhengnan Zhou
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Correspondence to Zhengnan Zhou.

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Zhao, E., Zhao, L. & Zhou, Z. The significance for solar heat gain on the indoor thermal environment of passive houses in cold areas in China. Energy Efficiency 13, 1047–1062 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09858-4

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