The Influence of Window-Wall Ratio on Heating Energy Consumption of Rural House in Severe Cold Regions of China

¹ School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China
² School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150006, China

Abstract

Rural houses in severe cold areas of China are mostly single-storey independent buildings with large shape coefficient. Compared with urban residential, it has larger contact area between envelope and outdoor environment of each household. Meanwhile, the heat transfer coefficient of window is usually greater than that of external wall and roof. The window-wall ratio is one of the important indicators affecting the energy consumption of rural house. This paper takes window-wall ratio as the main variable, building orientation, thermal performance of envelope and window heat transfer coefficient as the auxiliary variables, and applies DesignBuilder software to quantitatively analyse the mechanism of window-wall ratio on rural house’s heating energy consumption under the interactive influence of multiple factors. Results show that the influence rule of window-wall ratio with different orientations on heating energy consumption will change when the thermal performance of envelope or window heat transfer coefficient changed. The synthetic effect of various factors should be considered in the design to reasonably determine the windowwall ratio of rural house.