Field investigation about thermal requirements area under local heating for rural house in Northwest China

Indoor heating zone could not be represented by architectural area. Precise heating control for the actual heat demand area is important for energy efficiency during heating period. Continuous whole-spatial heating will bring high energy consumption and serious energy waste as building area is relatively large for village residences in Northwest China. In order to reveal the differentiated indoor heat demand of residents and obtain the range of heating demand indoor occupants, this paper investigated a large number of village houses during heating period. Results shown that more than 90% of residents support that the heating area is smaller than building area. South-facing buildings have a larger heat demand area and the distribution of heating demand area inclined to south-facing windows and rest facilities. North-facing residents are more willing to be close to rest facilities and the heating range has greater shrinkage potential. Indoor people in dynamic have a larger demand area for heating compared to people in static but could accept lower heating temperature, and there is little difference about heating range distribution of heat demand between south-facing and north-facing buildings. This paper is the first to propose a method for determining the heat demand range for local heating, revealing the distribution characteristics of local heating demand in villages during winter, also quantifies the actual heating demand area according to the building volume, which provides data support for local heating design.