Operational performance evaluation of a Passive house residential building in northern China based on long-term monitoring in winter

Abstract

Passive houses, called nearly zero energy buildings in China, are developing rapidly. These constructions in China are mainly located in cold climate zones. Due to highly efficient energy-saving technology, Passive houses can decrease space heating demand (SHD) by 70%–90% compared to local conventional buildings. However, this energy-saving rate is still a theoretical result and needs to be verified by real data. There is a lack of studies evaluating the performance of residential Passive houses through monitored data in China. This article selects a newly built multi-storey residential Passive house building in Qingdao to accurately quantify its energy performance. Through energy consumption monitoring throughout winter, the average SHD of this building at an occupancy rate of 47% was found to be 28 kWh/(m2·a) and the primary energy consumption was 96.7 kWh/(m2·a), while maintaining a high level of indoor comfort. Compared with local conventional Green Buildings, the SHD of the case building was reduced by 86.3% and the total energy consumption was reduced by 69.2%. The results demonstrate that Passive houses have a great energy-saving potential and provide evidence supporting the use of Passive houses as an option for sustainable building in northern China.