A case study of industrial building energy performance in a cold climate region in a developing country

Most industrial buildings in developing countries such as China have excessively high energy consumption, and the portion used by HVAC systems is significant. This investigation used a winery building in a cold region in northern China as a case study to analyze industrial building energy performance. A lack of communication, cultural differences in design requirements, and poor construction quality were the primary factors that led to excessive air leakage, insufficient building insulation, and poor indoor air distribution. This investigation developed a set of methods to evaluate building energy use, air leakage, condensation, thermal insulation, and indoor air distribution. A number of remedial measures were proposed, and some of them have been proven to be effective. In developing countries such as China, the lessons learned in this project will be useful for designing and constructing energy-efficient industrial buildings with desirable indoor environments. CE Database subject headings: Industrial facilities; Energy consumption; Air leakage; Condensation; Insulation; Temperature distribution Introduction Both the number and construction speed of industrial buildings in China are among the highest in the world, especially in the last decade. The National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that the floor area of industrial buildings completed in 2012 was about 516,995,000m, nearly twice that of 2004 (National Bureau of Statistics of China,2013). Industrial buildings have consumed more than 7% of the total primary energy in China every year since 2006 (Xu, 2013; Wang et al., 2010). About50-55% of the energy (Wang et al., 2010; Zheng et al., 2005) was consumed by the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of the buildings in providing a suitable indoor environment. The percentage in developed countries can reach 65% (Yaoet al., 2005;Lamet al.,2008) Zhou, H., Li, W., Chen, Y., Lai, D., Sun, H., and Chen, Q. 2016. “A case study of industrial building energy performance in a cold climate region in a developing country,” Accepted by Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 30(2): 04015001, 9 pages, DOI: 10.1061/ (ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000735.