Indoor Thermal Environment of Residential Buildings in Three Cities of China

Abstract

This paper deals with the space heating and indoor thermal environment of residential buildings in three large cities in China; Shanghai, Beijing and Harbin. The investigation was carried out for 240 houses during the winter from 1998 to 2000 by means of questionnaire and liquid crystal thermometers. Also, the temperature and humidity of 20 houses were measured by small data loggers with temperature and humidity sensors. The findings are as follows: 1) In Shanghai, air conditioning units are popularly used for space heating in 45% of houses. One or two rooms of the house are heated for only about 4 hours in the evening. The indoor temperature of the houses is around 15 and is stable during the measurement period due to the thermal capacity of the concrete structure. The occupants wore relatively heavy clothes in the low temperature indoor environment. 2) In Beijing, central space heating is popular and all rooms are heated throughout the entire day. The room temperature is around 20 . 3) In Harbin, the heating system is not operated all day long in some cases although central space heating is popular. The indoor temperature of these apartments is 5 lower than others that are heated all day.