A Study of the Impact of Interior Envelope Structure on Cold and Hot Load in Yangtze River Basin of China

The climate in the Yangtze River basin in China is hot in summer while cold in winter, and humid yearly. The operation mode of heating and air-conditioning of residential buildings in this region is intermittent and air conditioners are used in the part of rooms. Most of the existing researches focus on the design of external envelope structures such as external wall, roof, external window, and natural ventilation of air infiltration. Little research paid attention to the impact of interior envelope structure on HVAC energy consumption. For this purpose, this paper did a literature review of the research toward interior envelope structure. Then a typical building model was selected according to the questionnaire survey results and relevant standards. The impact of interior envelope structure on heating and air-conditioning load and the heat transfer energy of each surface of room were discussed by simulation software EnergyPlus. With the analysis, this paper proposed that heat transfer through interior enclosure and the operating performance of air conditioner between rooms which have different operating schedules and temperature settings should be emphasized and finally indicated the further work.