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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