IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i21p6950-d662343.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating Insulation, Glazing and Airtightness Options for Passivhaus EnerPHit Retrofitting of a Dwelling in China’s Hot Summer–Cold Winter Climate Region

Author

Listed:
  • Chenfei Liu

    (School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN, UK)

  • Stephen Sharples

    (School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN, UK)

  • Haniyeh Mohammadpourkarbasi

    (School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN, UK)

Abstract

Passivhaus EnerPHit is a rigorous retrofit energy standard for buildings, based on high thermal insulation and airtightness levels, which aims to significantly reduce building energy consumption during operation. However, extra retrofit materials are required to achieve this standard, which raises a contradiction between how to balance the environmental impacts of the retrofitting material inputs and extremely low energy consumption after retrofit. This motivated the analysis in this paper, which aimed to evaluate the possibilities of reducing the required retrofitting material inputs when trying to achieve the EnerPHit energy standard using a typical suburban dwelling in China’s hot summer–cold winter climate region as a case study. Firstly, how the insulation performance of each envelope component affected the building’s energy consumption was analysed. Based on this, sensitivity simulations of combinations of different insulation levels with different fabric components were investigated under four scenarios of insulation levels, airtightness and glazing choice. The final proposed retrofitting plans achieved the EnerPHit standard with insulation materials’ savings between 18% to 58% compared to a baseline retrofit plan, and this led, in turn, to 3.9 to 12.6 tonnes of carbon reductions. Moreover, an energy-saving of 87% in heating and 70% in cooling was achieved compared with the pre-retrofit dwelling.

Suggested Citation

  • Chenfei Liu & Stephen Sharples & Haniyeh Mohammadpourkarbasi, 2021. "Evaluating Insulation, Glazing and Airtightness Options for Passivhaus EnerPHit Retrofitting of a Dwelling in China’s Hot Summer–Cold Winter Climate Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:6950-:d:662343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6950/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6950/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sierra-Pérez, Jorge & Rodríguez-Soria, Beatriz & Boschmonart-Rives, Jesús & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2018. "Integrated life cycle assessment and thermodynamic simulation of a public building’s envelope renovation: Conventional vs. Passivhaus proposal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1510-1521.
    2. Röck, Martin & Saade, Marcella Ruschi Mendes & Balouktsi, Maria & Rasmussen, Freja Nygaard & Birgisdottir, Harpa & Frischknecht, Rolf & Habert, Guillaume & Lützkendorf, Thomas & Passer, Alexander, 2020. "Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    3. Baldwin, Andrew N. & Loveday, Dennis L. & Li, Baizhan & Murray, Michael & Yu, Wei, 2018. "A research agenda for the retrofitting of residential buildings in China – A case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 41-51.
    4. Dalbem, Renata & Grala da Cunha, Eduardo & Vicente, Romeu & Figueiredo, Antonio & Oliveira, Rui & Silva, Antonio César Silveira Baptista da, 2019. "Optimisation of a social housing for south of Brazil: From basic performance standard to passive house concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 1278-1296.
    5. Stephan, André & Crawford, Robert H. & de Myttenaere, Kristel, 2013. "A comprehensive assessment of the life cycle energy demand of passive houses," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 23-34.
    6. Kovacic, Iva & Reisinger, Julia & Honic, Meliha, 2018. "Life Cycle Assessment of embodied and operational energy for a passive housing block in Austria," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P2), pages 1774-1786.
    7. Liu, Guo & Li, Xiaohu & Tan, Yongtao & Zhang, Guomin, 2020. "Building green retrofit in China: Policies, barriers and recommendations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    8. Wang, Yang & Kuckelkorn, Jens & Zhao, Fu-Yun & Spliethoff, Hartmut & Lang, Werner, 2017. "A state of art of review on interactions between energy performance and indoor environment quality in Passive House buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1303-1319.
    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. Yupei Lai & Yutong Li & Xinyi Feng & Tao Ma, 2022. "Green retrofit of existing residential buildings in China: An investigation on residents’ perceptions," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(2), pages 332-353, March.
    2. Nick Van Loy & Griet Verbeeck & Elke Knapen, 2021. "Personal Heating in Dwellings as an Innovative, Energy-Sufficient Heating Practice: A Case Study Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-27, June.
    3. Fang Wang & Wen-Jia Yang & Wei-Feng Sun, 2020. "Heat Transfer and Energy Consumption of Passive House in a Severely Cold Area: Simulation Analyses," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Jia, Ling & Qian, Queena K. & Meijer, Frits & Visscher, Henk, 2021. "How information stimulates homeowners’ cooperation in residential building energy retrofits in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Echarri-Iribarren, Victor & Echarri-Iribarren, Fernando & Rizo-Maestre, Carlos, 2019. "Ceramic panels versus aluminium in buildings: Energy consumption and environmental impact assessment with a new methodology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 959-974.
    6. Xing Li & Qinli Deng & Zhigang Ren & Xiaofang Shan & Guang Yang, 2021. "Parametric Study on Residential Passive House Building in Different Chinese Climate Zones," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Chenfei Liu & Stephen Sharples & Haniyeh Mohammadpourkarbasi, 2023. "A Review of Building Energy Retrofit Measures, Passive Design Strategies and Building Regulation for the Low Carbon Development of Existing Dwellings in the Hot Summer–Cold Winter Region of China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-25, May.
    8. Ma, Dingyuan & Li, Xiaodong & Lin, Borong & Zhu, Yimin, 2023. "An intelligent retrofit decision-making model for building program planning considering tacit knowledge and multiple objectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PB).
    9. Yu Cao & Cong Xu & Syahrul Nizam Kamaruzzaman & Nur Mardhiyah Aziz, 2022. "A Systematic Review of Green Building Development in China: Advantages, Challenges and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-29, September.
    10. David Vérez & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2021. "Which Building Services Are Considered to Have Impact on Climate Change?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Colclough, Shane & McGrath, Teresa, 2015. "Net energy analysis of a solar combi system with Seasonal Thermal Energy Store," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 611-616.
    12. Abd Alla, Sara & Bianco, Vincenzo & Tagliafico, Luca A. & Scarpa, Federico, 2020. "Life-cycle approach to the estimation of energy efficiency measures in the buildings sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    13. Marek Krok & Paweł Majewski & Wojciech P. Hunek & Tomasz Feliks, 2022. "Energy Optimization of the Continuous-Time Perfect Control Algorithm," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, February.
    14. Jacek Michalak & Bartosz Michałowski, 2022. "Understanding Sustainability of Construction Products: Answers from Investors, Contractors, and Sellers of Building Materials," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, March.
    15. Maria Cristina Collivignarelli & Giacomo Cillari & Paola Ricciardi & Marco Carnevale Miino & Vincenzo Torretta & Elena Cristina Rada & Alessandro Abbà, 2020. "The Production of Sustainable Concrete with the Use of Alternative Aggregates: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-34, September.
    16. Mojtaba Ashour & Amir Mahdiyar & Syarmila Hany Haron, 2021. "A Comprehensive Review of Deterrents to the Practice of Sustainable Interior Architecture and Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    17. Fahlstedt, Oskar & Temeljotov-Salaj, Alenka & Lohne, Jardar & Bohne, Rolf André, 2022. "Holistic assessment of carbon abatement strategies in building refurbishment literature — A scoping review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    18. Abdur Rehman Mazhar & Shuli Liu & Ashish Shukla, 2018. "A Key Review of Non-Industrial Greywater Heat Harnessing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-34, February.
    19. Forde, Joe & Hopfe, Christina J. & McLeod, Robert S. & Evins, Ralph, 2020. "Temporal optimization for affordable and resilient Passivhaus dwellings in the social housing sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    20. Wang, Yang & Kuckelkorn, Jens & Li, Daoliang & Du, Jiangtao, 2018. "Evaluation on distributed renewable energy system integrated with a Passive House building using a new energy performance index," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 81-89.

    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:14:y:2021:i:21:p:6950-:d:662343. 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.