How do urban residents use energy for winter heating at home? A large-scale survey in the hot summer and cold winter climate zone in the Yangtze River region

• Published in: Energy and buildings Vol. 223; p. 110131
• Main Authors: Jiang, Haochen, Yao, Runming, Han, Shiyu, Du, Chenqiu, Yu, Wei, Chen, Shuqin, Li, Baiyi, Yu, Hang, Li, Nianping, Peng, Jinqing, Li, Baizhan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 15.09.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Air conditioning; Bedrooms; Cluster analysis; Decision making; Energy; Energy policy; Heat exchangers; Heat pumps; Heating; Hot summer and cold winter zone; Households; Indoor environments; Investment strategy; Occupancy; Polls & surveys; Residential buildings; Rivers; Socio-tech survey; Summer; Thermal environments; Winter; Winter heating behaviors; Yangtze River; Socio-tech survey; Hot summer and cold winter zone; Residential buildings; Winter heating behaviors
• ISSN: 0378-7788; 1872-6178
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110131

•Develops a holistic large-scale field survey of winter heating in the HSCW zone.•Strong evidence of winter heating patterns classifies as part-time-part-space.•Spatial and temporal elements feature the end-users’ heating demand.•Findings support energy policy and design solutions for building heating systems. The increasing demand for improving indoor thermal environment in the hot summer and cold winter climate zone (HSCW) in the Yangtze River region in China poses enormous challenges in terms of energy policy and design solutions for this unique region. A comprehensive understanding of people’s habits and behaviors involving winter heating is imperative for decision making for urban heating infrastructure investment strategies that significantly impact the decarbonization of heating. However, there are little studies of a large-scale survey to gain such knowledge acrose the region. The aim of this study is to develop a rigorous survey method in order to obtain reliable data for analysis. Five municipal/capital cities across the upper, middle and downstream Yangtze River were surveyed based on 30 randomly generated locations in each city. A total of 8481 valuable samples were obtained in the survey conducted in the winter from November 2017 to March 2018. It is revealed that air conditioning/air source heat pumps are the predominant systems, accounting for 63% and 58% for bedroom and living room heating respectively. The use patterns of heating are diverse featuring ‘part-time-part-space’ systems in accordance with the occupancy patterns. There is significant evidence of the habit of opening a window to provide a gap for fresh air irrespective of whether the heating is in use. Two-step cluster analysis is employed to subdivide occupants’ heating-related behaviors into three clusters to characterize households. This study fills the knowledge gap of winter-heating-related behaviors. The research outcomes will benefit building energy simulations for energy prediction and help policy makers making decisions on providing strategic guidance in terms of winter heating solutions in this region.