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

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.