A comprehensive effectiveness study of passive design parameters for traditional dwellings in Qinba mountainous area

Traditional dwelling has achieved harmony between building and climatic environment, which is one of the most significant prerequisites for sustainability. In this study, Liyuanba traditional dwellings were selected as the representative traditional dwellings in southwestern part of Qinba mountainous area, and passive design strategies extracted from traditional dwellings were utilized to improve its indoor thermal comfort. This research presents an approach in which the energy simulation, orthogonal arrays and range analysis were integrated to analyze the sensitivity of each passive parameter to overall energy-saving performance and to determine how energy consumption can be minimized by the optimal combination of them. The optimized passive strategy could reduce the annual energy consumption of the simulated dwelling by 65.1% compared with that of the original one and increase the indoor air temperature and mean radiation temperature by 4.31 degrees C and 4.35 degrees C in winter, respectively, meeting the requirements of the design standard for energy efficiency for rural residential buildings (GB/T50824-2013). Through the systematic study of passive parameters in the southwestern part of Qinba mountainous area, the optimal combination of passive design strategies could be utilized for the renovation of traditional dwellings to improve the building energy performance under the premise of satisfying the indoor thermal comfort.