Residential indoor thermal environment investigation and analysis on energy saving of air conditioning in hot summer and warm winter zone in China

The increasing sharply penetration of air conditioning causes a large number of energy consumption, it is crucial to identify a solution to reduce energy consumption. In this study, the operation pattern of air conditioning (A/C), indoor thermal environment, residents' thermal comfort and energy consumption in multi-residential buildings in hot summer and warm winter zone are analyzed by means of field measurements and questionnaire surveys. Most observed indoor temperature fell within the range of 28–30 °C. Because the relative humidity reached up to more than 90%, some residential indoor thermal environment has the risk of heatstroke. It can be obtained 28.4 °C as the thermal neutral temperature, and the acceptable temperature ranges from 27.1 °C to 29.6 °C, which is much higher than other climate zones. Moreover, the simulation software Energy-Plus was used to simulate and verify the energy consumption of typical multi-residential buildings. Simulation results indicate that each 1 °C increase of setting temperature would lead to an approximately 20% reduction in cooling energy consumption. The appropriate setting temperature of air conditioning is the temperature which could achieve the actual indoor temperature maintain at approximately 28–29 °C, the appropriate service time and switching behavior of A/C also have positive effect on the reduction of energy consumption.