Comparative study on a low-carbon house and common houses with post occupancy evaluation in rural area of China

Nowadays, due to the construction of new buildings, global warming becomes more serious than ever before. In order to investigate the actual performance of low-carbon houses, post-occupancy evaluations have been undertaken on a low-carbon house and two typical normal houses in the rural areas of China. The result of the low-carbon house is compared with normal houses in perspective of indoor environment quality, energy consumption and satisfaction questionnaire. The result indicates the Eco-house enjoys advantages over the conventional houses in all respects. This paper also identifies the underlying factors that cause the gaps between predicted and recorded energy performance of the Eco-house. Most of the factors are associated with parameters regarding occupancy behaviour and facilities management in simulation.