Thermal Insulation Performance of Roof Forms in Rural Residential Houses in Western China

¹ College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
² Sustainable Building and Environmental Research Institute, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710129, China
³ Institute of Urban Innovation, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, 240-8501, Japan
⁴ Heilongjiang Institute of Construction Technology, Harbin, 150025, China

^b* Corresponding author: liuyu@nwpu.edu.cn
^a xiaoqiubo@tongji.edu.cn
^c zhang39@gmail.com
^d heyong@tongji.edu.cn
^e cmq000129@hict.org.cn

Abstract

The thermal insulation performance of the roofs in rural residential buildings in western China was discussed in this paper. A type of residential building that had been extensively constructed in the southern Shaanxi region was selected as the basic model to compare and analyse the thermal insulation performance of different roof forms under natural and heating conditions. The flat roof, sloping roof and sloping roof combined with a flat roof (SF roof) were used by residents. The results showed that the SF roof had better energy-saving performance compared to the other two types of roofs. Further discussion showed that the air layer of the SF roof was the reason for its better thermal insulation performance. In natural conditions, the insulation performance of the air layer accounts for more than 50% of the overall effect. Increasing the height of the air layer will enhance the insulation performance of the SF roof, but it is necessary to balance the performance improvement and cost increase.