Cost-Optimal Renovation Solutions for Detached Rural Houses in Severe Cold Regions of China

Abstract

High heating expenses are observed in numerous Chinese rural houses located in severe cold regions due to the high heating demand, inferior envelope performance and low-efficiency heating equipment. The local traditional heating methods include Chinese Kangs and coal boilers with water-based radiators. The intermittent operation and manual regulation of these systems result in significant temperature differences and inadequate thermal comfort. This study presents the cost-optimal envelope renovation solutions with the minimized lifecycle cost (LCC) during a 20-year discount period and CO2 emissions of annual delivered energy consumptions. A single-family detached rural house in Harbin was used as a case building, illustrating the typical state of comparable houses in this climate context. Simulation-based multi-optimization analysis was conducted in this study using the building simulation tool IDA ICE and its integrated optimization tool AutoMOO. The results indicate that the cost-optimal renovation solutions with intermittent and continuous heating can cut CO2 emissions by 30% and 40%, respectively. The LCC with intermittent heating is still 7% greater than its pre-renovation case, which may require external financial support to encourage the renovation conduction, while the LCC with continuous heating decreased by 8% after renovation. According to the comparison results, cost-optimal solutions have significant advantages in both reductions of LCC and CO2 emissions over standard-based solutions. Moreover, utilizing intermittent heating is more effective than continuous heating in demonstrating the positive impacts of envelope renovation on increasing average temperature, decreasing temperature differences and lowering occupied time at low thermal comfort levels.

Integrating Passive Energy Efficient Measures to the Building Envelope of a Multi-Apartment Building in Sweden: Analysis of Final Energy Savings and Cost Effectiveness

“…A major challenge in energy renovation projects is to achieve energy efficiency requirements cost effectively [12,13]. Different studies [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] have investigated the economic benefits of EEMs for existing buildings. Dodoo et al [17] found that adding insulation to the basement walls is the most cost-effective EEM for a multi-apartment building located in southern Sweden.…”

The spatial effects of rural toilet retrofitting investment on farmers' medical and health expenditure in China

“…Specifically, on the one hand, China's terrain exhibits a stepped pattern with higher elevation in the west and lower elevation in the east, and there are significant differences in climate, altitude and location. Water resources gradually decrease from the southeast coast to the northwest inland (15), resulting in very different costs for toilet retrofitting in different regions (16). On the other hand, the socio-economic development in the eastern, central and western region is unbalanced, and the gap between coastal and inland is large in terms of economic development, and the residents in remote areas and developed areas differ greatly in living customs and traditional concepts (17), which also lead to different demands for toilet retrofitting in different regions, thus affecting farmers' medical and health expenditure.…”