IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i1p503-d1022860.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy Performance Assessment of the Container Housing in Subtropical Region of China upon Future Climate Scenarios

Author

Listed:
  • Hua Suo

    (College of Transportation Engineering and Architecture, Foshan University, Foshan 528225, China)

  • Xinxin Guan

    (Guangzhou Branch, Shenzhen Architectural Design Institute, Guangzhou 510499, China)

  • Shanglin Wu

    (College of Transportation Engineering and Architecture, Foshan University, Foshan 528225, China)

  • Zhengyu Fan

    (College of Architecture, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China)

Abstract

Being continuously abandoned in huge amounts year-round by freight industry, shipping containers meet increasing regenerative utility in forms of temporary buildings, small public facilities, etc., especially in fast-developing countries with large populations and high living intensities like China. Although recycled containers have been nicely entitled with green building visions, their characterized inferior thermal properties (low inertia, poor insulation, etc.) when compared to conventional building forms and materials will greatly hinder their energy-saving potential, especially under the serious future extreme climate expectations. It therefore becomes particularly necessary to uncover the actual energy and thermophysical behaviors of the container building typology, upon extreme future climate scenarios targeting zero carbon forms for small-scale and temporary buildings in the upcoming future. In reference to existing data, this study made reasonable predictions of future extreme climate conditions (2050 and 2080), employing the Morphing method, and examined the cooling energy performances of the typical container housing in a subtropical climate through dynamic simulations. The energy-saving effectiveness of key design variables including insulation types, thicknesses, window opening areas and air infiltration rates has been validated and quantitatively revealed for such a building typology among the tested hot summer and warm winter region. Results imply that the additional energy burden brought by future extreme weather conditions cannot be ignored. The heat gains from envelopes and hot air infiltration are both key design factors of cooling energy increments for such building types upon future extreme climates. Compared with expanded pearl- and vermiculite-type insulation materials, thinner (70~90 mm) plastics and mineral wool-type ones have better energy-saving performance and therefore are worth consideration. High air infiltration rates and window openings in eastern or western orientations shall be carefully selected. The research outcomes can provide key references for design decisions made for the energy-efficient and low-carbon design of the container building typology among subtropical zones, or similar climate regions in response to future climate conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Hua Suo & Xinxin Guan & Shanglin Wu & Zhengyu Fan, 2023. "Energy Performance Assessment of the Container Housing in Subtropical Region of China upon Future Climate Scenarios," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-28, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:1:p:503-:d:1022860
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/1/503/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/1/503/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wan, Kevin K.W. & Li, Danny H.W. & Pan, Wenyan & Lam, Joseph C., 2012. "Impact of climate change on building energy use in different climate zones and mitigation and adaptation implications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 274-282.
    2. Kristiansen, A.B. & Ma, T. & Wang, R.Z., 2019. "Perspectives on industrialized transportable solar powered zero energy buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 112-124.
    3. Yu, Guoqing & Yang, Hongxing & Luo, Daina & Cheng, Xu & Ansah, Mark Kyeredey, 2021. "A review on developments and researches of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) windows and shading blinds," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    4. Gonçalves, Juliana E. & van Hooff, Twan & Saelens, Dirk, 2020. "Understanding the behaviour of naturally-ventilated BIPV modules: A sensitivity analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 133-148.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bell, N.O. & Bilbao, J.I. & Kay, M. & Sproul, A.B., 2022. "Future climate scenarios and their impact on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system design and performance for commercial buildings for 2050," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Cui, Ying & Yan, Da & Hong, Tianzhen & Xiao, Chan & Luo, Xuan & Zhang, Qi, 2017. "Comparison of typical year and multiyear building simulations using a 55-year actual weather data set from China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 890-904.
    3. Liang, Shen & Zheng, Hongfei & Wang, Xuanlin & Ma, Xinglong & Zhao, Zhiyong, 2022. "Design and performance validation on a solar louver with concentrating-photovoltaic-thermal modules," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 71-83.
    4. Moazami, Amin & Nik, Vahid M. & Carlucci, Salvatore & Geving, Stig, 2019. "Impacts of future weather data typology on building energy performance – Investigating long-term patterns of climate change and extreme weather conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 696-720.
    5. Liu, Ruimiao & Liu, Zhongbing & Xiong, Wei & Zhang, Ling & Zhao, Chengliang & Yin, Yingde, 2024. "Performance simulation and optimization of building façade photovoltaic systems under different urban building layouts," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    6. Sánchez, M.N. & Soutullo, S. & Olmedo, R. & Bravo, D. & Castaño, S. & Jiménez, M.J., 2020. "An experimental methodology to assess the climate impact on the energy performance of buildings: A ten-year evaluation in temperate and cold desert areas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    7. Bai, Lujian & Wang, Shusheng, 2019. "Definition of new thermal climate zones for building energy efficiency response to the climate change during the past decades in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 709-719.
    8. Liu, Zhijian & Liu, Yuanwei & He, Bao-Jie & Xu, Wei & Jin, Guangya & Zhang, Xutao, 2019. "Application and suitability analysis of the key technologies in nearly zero energy buildings in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 329-345.
    9. Kharseh, Mohamad & Altorkmany, Lobna & Al-Khawaja, Mohammed & Hassani, Ferri, 2015. "Analysis of the effect of global climate change on ground source heat pump systems in different climate categories," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 219-225.
    10. Chai, Jiale & Huang, Pei & Sun, Yongjun, 2019. "Investigations of climate change impacts on net-zero energy building lifecycle performance in typical Chinese climate regions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 176-189.
    11. Nagy, Karoly & Körmendi, Krisztina, 2012. "Use of renewable energy sources in light of the “New Energy Strategy for Europe 2011–2020”," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 393-399.
    12. Janusz Marchwiński, 2022. "Research on BIPV in Office and Public Utility Buildings in Aesthetic and Utility Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-27, December.
    13. Tung, Ching-Pin & Tseng, Tze-Chi & Huang, An-Lei & Liu, Tzu-Ming & Hu, Ming-Che, 2013. "Impact of climate change on Taiwanese power market determined using linear complementarity model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 432-439.
    14. Huang, Kuo-Tsang & Hwang, Ruey-Lung, 2016. "Future trends of residential building cooling energy and passive adaptation measures to counteract climate change: The case of Taiwan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1230-1240.
    15. Tarroja, Brian & Chiang, Felicia & AghaKouchak, Amir & Samuelsen, Scott & Raghavan, Shuba V. & Wei, Max & Sun, Kaiyu & Hong, Tianzhen, 2018. "Translating climate change and heating system electrification impacts on building energy use to future greenhouse gas emissions and electric grid capacity requirements in California," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 522-534.
    16. Martin Spiller & Corinna Müller & Zara Mulholland & Paraskevi Louizidou & Frithjof C. Küpper & Kevin Knosala & Peter Stenzel, 2022. "Reducing Carbon Emissions from the Tourist Accommodation Sector on Non-Interconnected Islands: A Case Study of a Medium-Sized Hotel in Rhodes, Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-24, May.
    17. Ke, Wei & Ji, Jie & Wang, Chuyao & Zhang, Chengyan & Xie, Hao & Tang, Yayun & Lin, Yuan, 2022. "Comparative analysis on the electrical and thermal performance of two CdTe multi-layer ventilated windows with and without a middle PCM layer: A preliminary numerical study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 1306-1323.
    18. Yuanzheng Li & Wenjing Wang & Yating Wang & Yashu Xin & Tian He & Guosong Zhao, 2020. "A Review of Studies Involving the Effects of Climate Change on the Energy Consumption for Building Heating and Cooling," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Shan, He & Poredoš, Primož & Zou, Hao & Lv, Haotian & Wang, Ruzhu, 2023. "Perspectives for urban microenvironment sustainability enabled by decentralized water-energy-food harvesting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    20. Berardi, Umberto, 2017. "A cross-country comparison of the building energy consumptions and their trends," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 230-241.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:1:p:503-:d:1022860. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.