Modelling thermal comfort and energy consumption of a typical mixed-cooling apartment in Guilin, China

Many studies have shown that the use of mixed-mode cooling can bring down the cooling load significantly while maintaining satisfactory in door air quality and thermal comfort. But there is little information available concerning mixed-mode cooling in China. Thus, basing on design parameters of design standard, A series of computer simulation of a typical mixed-cooling apartment in Guilin, lies south-west of China, was conducted by Eneryplus and Climate Consultant software. Analysis of the results indicates natural ventilation can burden part air conditioning load but is not enough to satisfy the requirement of indoor thermal comfort, mechanical cooling and heating systems are needed. For the whole year, the running days of individual natural ventilation, heating and cooling are very seldom, and hybrid operation is available for most of the year. There are difference using Fanger model and adaptive model to assess thermal comfort in mixed-mode spaces. Which one is the most suitable methods  need to further research. The current design parameters of fully air-conditioning and natural ventilation buildings can not be simply used in mixed-mode cooling design. People’s behaviour in mixed-mode spaces have an major influence to energy consumption. The study will contribute to a deep understanding of thermal comfort and energy consumption of mixed-mode buildings. At the same time, it will also enlighten to optimize suitable design parameters and control strategies of mixed-cooling apartments in  south-west of China.