International Conference | Bari- Lecce, Italy
Session I- II
HOUSEHOLD LIFESTYLE AND ITS IMPACTS ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN BEIJING
Nianxiong Liu1, Dan Mo2, Bing Chen3 & Muzhou Wang4
1 School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China, phlnx @ tsinghua. edu. cn 2 School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China, mdan @ mail. tsinghua. edu. cn 3 School of Architecture, Xi’ an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, Bing. Chen @ xjtlu. edu. cn 4 School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China, 906466 @ sina. com
Abstract
Compared to the centralized thermal environment controlling system which has been widely used in the north of China, natural gas heating household deserved more attention. The application of a decentralized household gas heating boilers with more customized functions can be operated according to the user demands and lead to better energy efficiency based on the principle of lifecycle analysis. This paper aims to provide an insight survey into household of lifestyle, thermal comfort and gas consumption in Beijing, China, and explore the impact of their habits and behaviour – the way of using gas-consuming heating boilers( e. g. duration, intensity and frequency of use) to ensure indoor thermal comfort – on energy consumption. To achieve this objective, a pilot study was conducted. Twelve households have been randomly selected as sample and relevant data has been collected using multi-strategy research approach from a long term perspective from 2012 to 2013. Household hourly room temperature monitoring data points and annual temperature profiles are used in not only recognizing the usage patterns of heating equipment controlling, but also in the evaluation of household thermal comfort. Additionally household heating energy consumption data were collected by gas meter recording. From a socio-technical perspective, it is found that different households often have different patterns on controlling appliance, as a result, the household thermal comfort zone hours and gas consumptions were varied greatly during monitoring periods. This comparative analysis have shown that higher gas consumption did not necessarily yields higher comfort hour percentage proportionally. It suggested that there were potentials in energy saving by lifestyle and behaviour. It is expected that some findings from this research would serve as an evidence database to inform occupants about a more energy efficient way of managing energy-consuming appliance and thereby guide the building design and controlling system operation in the future.
Keywords
Lifestyle, Energy Consumption, Thermal Environment, Controlling System.
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