Comparison and analysis of energy consumption of energy-efficient office buildings in different climate regions in China: Case studies

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the energy consumption (EC) and find out the determining factors of energy-efficient office building cases according to specific case studies in typical cities of different climate zones in China. The investigated building cases were located in four cities (Beijing, Ningbo, Nanjing and Shenzhen) of three architecture thermotechnical design zones (cold zone, hot summer and cold winter zone, hot summer and warm winter zone). The analysis indicates that the energy consumption index (ECI) of these four cases ranges from 41.06 to 74.23 kW·h/(m2·a). Besides, the outdoor climate can change the EC of air conditioning/heating systems, and further determine the monthly volatility of the total EC of the whole building. © 2013 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.