Optimal design of residential balcony based on environmental benefit: A case study in hot summer and cold winter area of China

Abstract

The aggravation of the greenhouse gas emission-resulted climate change poses a significant challenge to the world. In response to the urgent need for significantly more sustainable societies, this paper develops a protocol for the optimal design of residential balcony based on environmental benefits in the case study of China’s hot summer and cold winter area. The study utilized ROI and AY as environmental performance indicators for decision-making scheme investment and EnergyPlus to simulate the A/C energy-saving potential of considered balcony design schemes. The literature and experiment validation results show that EnergyPlus with Shadow Algorithm is reliable for studying the energy consumption of residence with balcony. The added embodied environmental impact of the different design schemes was estimated, and the idea of life cycle assessment was used for quantitative evaluation of the carbon emissions of the balcony. The results show the depth of 1.2 m suits the south/north-facing balcony, and a big window-wall ratio of 0.6 was the most beneficial in the environmental performance of the balcony investment. When the balcony is attached to different rooms, the environmental profitability is influenced by the factors such as occupancy behaviour and balcony environmental investment. The attached room type of residence on a case-by-case basis should be analyzed.