scholarly journals Causes of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects of Northern China: A Review and Empirical Study

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuting Qi ◽  
Queena Qian ◽  
Frits Meijer ◽  
Henk Visscher
Keyword(s):  
Energy Saving ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Building Information

Building energy renovations can effectively improve the environmental performance and energy sustainability of existing buildings. From 2007 onwards, the Chinese government has promoted energy-saving renovations of existing urban residential buildings. Nevertheless, various quality failures happen during the construction period in energy-saving renovation projects of residential buildings. Yet, the causes and their characters remain largely unknown. Through a literature review, this paper investigates the causes of quality failures. Validated through experts’ interviews, a total of 18 causes were identified in building energy renovation projects. These causes were analyzed from two main aspects: the importance of a cause (related to impact and frequency), and the level of effort required to address a cause (related to origin and scale), using both a questionnaire survey and a focus group. The results indicate that the critical causes of quality failures are working under high-cost and high-time pressure, adverse natural conditions, fraud of construction companies, incomplete construction site survey, poor checking procedures of supervisors, poor operational skilled workers, inadequate equipment performance, lack of experienced project managers, and incomplete building information in projects. The causes were classified as external and internal causes of building energy renovation projects. The outcome of this paper should aid policy makers and project coordinators to focus on critical causes of quality failures, and to develop effective actions and policy interventions to achieve successful renovation projects with high-quality performance.

scholarly journals Identification of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects in Northern China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuting Qi ◽  
Queena K. Qian ◽  
Frits M. Meijer ◽  
Henk J. Visscher
Keyword(s):  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Sustainability ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Crucial Problem ◽  
Preparation Stage ◽  
The Government

Building energy renovations contribute significantly to energy sustainability and environmental protection. These advantages have increased the importance of renovating existing residential buildings in many countries. In China, the government has supported the energy-saving renovation of existing urban residential buildings since 2007. However, quality failures, which do not meet the technical requirements, occur during construction processes in building energy renovation projects. Although quality failures are regarded as a crucial problem in building energy renovation projects, the identification of quality failures and their sources, likelihood, impacts, and causes remain mostly unknown. This paper investigates the nature of quality failures in building energy renovation projects. A total of 25 quality failures were first identified through five cases, and interviews with six experienced construction professionals in China. A questionnaire survey was further conducted to evaluate the frequency of quality failures. The results show the nature of quality failures that arise during construction and their sources, occurrence frequency, causes, and impacts. The research reveals that quality failures are caused by defaults by workers; inadequate checking procedures; incomplete construction site surveys; inaccurate design work; fraud of construction companies; and inefficient cooperation between different departments. Above all, the behaviors of the main actors are responsible for poor construction quality. Additionally, emphasis on quality control during the renovation preparation stage is critical to ensure that quality failures are reduced in numbers and severity.

scholarly journals Modifying Building Energy-Saving Design Based on Field Research into Climate Features and Local Residents’ Habits

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 442
Author(s):  
Xiaoyue Zhu ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Xudong Yang ◽  
Zhong Yu ◽  
Ji Ni
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Average Energy ◽  
Field Tests ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Building Energy Efficiency ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Building Energy Saving ◽  
Average Energy Consumption

In China, a surging urbanization highlights the significance of building energy conservation. However, most building energy-saving schemes are designed solely in compliance with prescriptive codes and lack consideration of the local situations, resulting in an unsatisfactory effect and a waste of funds. Moreover, the actual effect of the design has yet to be thoroughly verified through field tests. In this study, a method of modifying conventional building energy-saving design based on research into the local climate and residents’ living habits was proposed, and residential buildings in Panzhihua, China were selected for trial. Further, the modification scheme was implemented in an actual project with its effect verified by field tests. Research grasps the precise climate features of Panzhihua, which was previously not provided, and concludes that Panzhihua is a hot summer and warm winter zone. Accordingly, the original internal insulation was canceled, and the shading performance of the windows was strengthened instead. Test results suggest that the consequent change of SET* does not exceed 0.5 °C, whereas variations in the energy consumption depend on the room orientation. For rooms receiving less solar radiation, the average energy consumption increased by approximately 20%, whereas for rooms with a severe western exposure, the average energy consumption decreased by approximately 11%. On the other hand, the cost savings of removing the insulation layer are estimated at 177 million RMB (1 USD ≈ 6.5 RMB) per year. In conclusion, the research-based modification method proposed in this study can be an effective tool for improving building energy efficiency adapted to local conditions.

The Selection of Commercial Residential Building Energy Saving Reconstruction Object Research

2014 ◽  
Vol 716-717 ◽  
pp. 533-536
Author(s):  
Jing Wang ◽  
Zhan She Yang
Keyword(s):  
Energy Saving ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Design Standards ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Good Energy ◽  
Enormous Number ◽  
Selection Of

Energy saving of buildings in our country started from 90’s,which is so late that remaining at a low level .Although certain success has been achieved ,architecture reconstruction moves slowly on the whole ,especially for residential buildings. One of the reasons for this situation is lacking of money for energy saving reconstruction .Considering the enormous number of energy saving reconstruction buildings with the limited funds ,human resource and material resource, it is necessary to make a selection before the reconstruction ,weeding out the projects that are too poor to reconstruct in safety, functionality and energy-saving reconstruction, as well as the ones that have good energy saving performance and meet the energy efficiency design standards, which aren’t built for ages. The key point is to choose the existing buildings which are in urgent need of transformation in performance, economically rational and have feasible technic proceeding in batches with plans. Meanwhile, the reconstruction should use appropriate technology, combining with local climate characteristics.

Analysis and Discussion of the Cold Northern Areas of Rural Residential Energy Efficient Design

2012 ◽  
Vol 193-194 ◽  
pp. 121-124
Author(s):  
Ya Jun Wu ◽  
Xue Ying Wang ◽  
Dong Xu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Saving ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Residential Energy ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Northern Areas ◽  
Energy Saving Technology ◽  
Technical Measures

In the cold regions of northern China, compared to the urban residential buildings, the rural residential buildings are lack of energy-saving technology, which currently in its infancy, some places even still blank, this does not meet China's energy conservation policy, is not conducive to the sustainable development of the country. For this reason, this paper is focused on rural residential building, starting from environmental analysis and technical measures, analyzed on rural residential energy-saving design, and also make research and discussion in terms of building sitting and planning, shape and layout of the building, building structure and technology.

Study on Energy Saving of Local Building Material

2014 ◽  
Vol 539 ◽  
pp. 711-715
Author(s):  
Qi Yang ◽  
Mei Yang
Keyword(s):  
Energy Saving ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
Construction Quality ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Project Quality ◽  
Building Energy Saving ◽  
Energy Saving Technology

According to the research of city residential building energy conservation planning, design and technology application, this paper considers the influence of climate and energy saving design, determine the corresponding from the city planning, shape, envelope, Using the project management method, studies on the application of design energy-saving construction theory in the high-rise residential buildings and application of building energy saving technology in the architecture. How to strengthen the building energy-saving project quality supervision, to ensure the construction quality and construction process in the use of the premise of indoor thermal environment quality, make the high-rise residential energy-saving to 65% residential building standards; Through the research, the research of can provide technology guidance and decision-making reference for the construction of energy-saving work more extensive development, progress. Application of energy saving technology implementation, architecture in the architecture and how to strengthen the building energy-saving project quality supervision, to ensure the construction quality and construction process in the use of room

Analysis on the Development of Residential Building Energy Conservation

2014 ◽  
Vol 533 ◽  
pp. 135-139
Author(s):  
Jia Hui Huang
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Building Energy Conservation ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Depth Study

Building Energy Conservation, especially the research about residential building energy in face of the worldwide energy crisis is particularly urgent. At present, various countries have an in-depth study of the residential building energy to explore different methods, new building materials, and new technology(such as new thermal windows and doors), as well as the use of new energy has been put more attention to in energy conservation field. Comparing the residential buildings between domestic and overseas countries’ progress about related technologies, we could find some evolution and look to the prospects for the future in energy-saving field. We took a domestic project that used energy-saving technology as a practical example, and then made a simple overview of the current energy situation in China so as to get a glimpse of the development about residential building energy-saving. Finally, the article provided some comments about this topic in sustainable view.

scholarly journals A comparative benchmarking study of multi-storey residential buildings in two periods of energy saving efforts: the 1980s and the 2010s

2021 ◽  
Vol 2069 (1) ◽  
pp. 012075
Author(s):  
O M Jensen ◽  
J Rose ◽  
J Kragh ◽  
C H Christiansen ◽  
M Grimmig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Energy Performance ◽  
Heated Area ◽  
Energy Signature ◽  
Change Point Models

Abstract In 1990, Technological Institute (TI) in Denmark made a benchmarking study of 92 typical multi-storey buildings covering 23 000 dwellings. The study included measurement data from the 1970s and the years after the energy crises. This study showed that over a period of less than 20 years a significant reduction in energy consumption took place. In a new similar study, TI and Aalborg University have analysed 62 buildings covering 18 000 dwellings including measurement data from the last 20 years. This time, the data covers a period with an increasing focus on the carbon-emission impacts of energy consumption. As opposed to the first benchmarking study, the new 20-years study shows that the heat consumption has been almost constant over the last 20 years. This paper presents a comparative study of the two sets of measurements and evaluates energy saving efforts and individual building energy performance. Furthermore, the paper compares two different ways of deriving benchmarks from the data and demonstrates how utilizing change-point models/energy signature as opposed to the more traditional mean annual values per heated area, significantly increases the usability.

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