Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

The viability of solar photovoltaic powered off-grid Zero Energy

Buildings based on a container home
A.B. Kristiansen , B.Y. Zhao , T. Ma , R.Z. Wang *
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, MOE Engineering Research Center of Solar Energy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: With strongly decreasing prices of photovoltaics (PV) and battery storage in the past decade, together
Received 22 September 2020 with incentives for modular construction in China, shipping containers have been suggested as suitable
Received in revised form building modules. Transportable modules will ease the process of returning the modules to the factory
26 November 2020
for reuse and recycling of structural steel at the end of their lifetime. A previous comparison between the
Accepted 26 November 2020
proposed case studies has shown that the off-grid case can reduce the global warming potential by 76%
Available online 10 December 2020
in Shanghai when compared to a business-as-usual scenario. Generally, there is only a limited number of
Handling editor: Prof. Jiri Jaromir Kleme
s studies of container buildings with a simulation of the annual energy need in the literature. Particularly
there is a lack of studies of residential buildings designed for off-grid operation. This study expands a
Keywords: previous study of the case buildings by improved control strategies in TRNSYS to reduce the required PV
Zero energy building capacity and thereby the embodied emissions. For instance, thermal storage has been included to reduce
Residential building the amount of dumped energy. Also, ventilation and indoor temperature have been controlled based on
Off-grid ambient temperature, state of charge, day, and time. In cold climates, Photovoltaic thermal (PVT), floor
Solar PV
heating, and a generator have been added to increase the heating load. The results show that providing
Modular construction
thermal comfort in the heating season is the main challenge, both because of the lower coefficient of
Climate change
performance for the heat pump and due to the lower PV generation. According to the predicted effects of
climate change, the energy need for space heating is predicted to be reduced by on average 23% towards
2050 for the five climate zones in China which are considered, which would make it easier to provide
thermal comfort. The current study helps to provide a reference to lower the costs for planning and
improve the quality. The study is significant because China, who account for about 50% of new con-
struction globally, is targeting to increase its prefabricated construction by 30% within ten years.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction number of off-grid systems deployed in 2016 outpaced the grid

The electricity demand for buildings is expected to grow with
60% on average by 2040, where 90% of the growth will come from
developing countries (Roser, 2019). Since the major growth will be
from countries in Africa and Asia with excellent solar resources,
photovoltaics (PV) is usually the most economical way to supply the
growth in electricity demand in a sustainable way (IEA, 2018). In
addition, the price of Li-ion batteries has decreased rapidly, with an
average decrease of 14% between 2007 and 2014 (Nykvist and
Nilsson, 2015). In Australia, PV with energy storage has become
cheaper than electricity from the grid in several regions (REN21,
2018). Similarly, in countries such as Kenya and Uganda, the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rzwang@sjtu.edu.cn (R.Z. Wang).
connections (REN21, 2018). Based on the increase in off-grid
rooftop solar PV systems and modular construction, can a ship-
ping container be a suitable module to provide affordable and
sustainable off-grid homes?
Significant Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction may be
obtained if the containers replace structural steel in new buildings.
Three Life Cycle Assessments in China have highlighted the high
impact of steel in residential buildings. Li et al. (2019) studied four
reinforced concrete structures and concluded that steel contributed
to 40e53% of the embodied GHG emissions. Yang et al. (2018) found
that although steel only accounted for 2.6% of the mass of a resi-
dential building, steel contributed to 28% of the embodied GHG
emissions. The emission reduction when containers are reused for
building purposes can therefore be significant.
Container homes have the lowest embodied energy and GHG
emissions per square meter in a recent overview of prefabricated

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125312
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al.
Abbreviations
ACH50 Air Changes per Hour at 50 Pa pressure difference
ASHRAE The American Society of Heat, Refrigerating and
Air-Conditioning Engineers
DHW Domestic Hot Water
EER Energy Efficiency Ratio
g Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (commonly referred to
as SHGC)
GHG Greenhouse gas
HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
LCA Life Cycle Assessment
IWEC International Weather for Energy Calculation
(database)
PV Photovoltaics
PVT Photovoltaic thermal
Rated COP The rated power divided by the rated input power
SEER Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio defined
according to the European Union standards
EN14511 and EN14825, corresponding to China’s
domestic standard GB21455
SoC State of Charge
SCOP Seasonal Coefficient of Performance, defined
according to the European Union standards
EN14511 and EN14825, corresponding to China’s
domestic standard GB21455
VIP Vacuum Insulation Panel
ZEB Zero Energy Building
buildings (Tavares et al., 2019). Because containers already have an
infrastructure for transportation, it becomes easier to transport the
building back to the factory at the end-of-life for deconstruction
and recycling of the structural steel. This can help to reduce con-
struction waste, which, thus far, has often been overlooked in China
(Chi et al., 2020). Recycling steel from buildings has proven to be
profitable (Wang et al., 2018) with a recycling rate in China of 90%
(Li and Chen, 2017). A 22% reduction in embodied GHG emissions
was obtained with a 90% recycling rate of the structural steel for a
net-zero energy container building in Shanghai (Satola et al., 2020).
In addition to the reduction of GHG emissions, there is also the
political will for prefabrication. The Chinese government is strongly
promoting industrial prefabricated construction because it can
improve construction quality and productivity (Cao et al., 2015). A
comparison with traditional construction of a residential building
showed a 20% reduction in energy consumption and a 36% reduc-
tion in resource depletion (Cao et al., 2015). In 2016, China’s State
Council set the target to increase the amount of new construction
that was built through prefabrication from less than 1%e30% within
10 years (China, 2016). By 2019 there had been an increase, but still,
less than 5% of construction was built using prefabricated compo-
nents (Yi, 2019). However, some obstacles remain.
Hong and Shen (Hong et al., 2018) compared eight residential
buildings and showed that those which were constructed using
prefabrication technology were 26.3%e72.1% more expensive than
those built with the traditional model. Industrial construction
resulted in higher costs for investment in the factory, paperwork to
get a building permit, contract negotiation, and education and
salaries for highly skilled workers (Wu et al., 2019). The number of
drawings is 3e5 times higher than for a traditional building (Hong
et al., 2018). The lack of design norms and standards for off-site
construction together with a lack of quality control has led to a
2
Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312
negative perception in the market (Gan et al., 2017). Does this imply
that container buildings should be written off?
Many of these problems exist because the technology is
maturing. It can be economical to mass-produce buildings in fac-
tories in the same way as cars, but it requires thousands of identical
buildings to be produced. Individual customization needs to be
reduced in order to make it more economical to produce buildings
in factories than on-site (Olivares, 2010). More experience and the
use of BIM (Building Information Modeling) will lead to improved
standardized units over time.
This article builds on a review of solar powered Zero Energy
Buildings (ZEBs) by Kristiansen et al. (2019) that clarifies the state
of the art for ZEBs, give design recommendations for container
homes, and evaluates renewable energy supply options. A previous
comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study calculated a 76%
reduction in Global Warming Potential (tCO2eq) from the built
case-building described in this article without PV-battery system
(grid-connected) compared to the off-grid case (Satola et al., 2020).
This is due to the significant electricity consumption of the built
case building and the high environmental impacts of grid electricity
in Shanghai, which is mostly based on hard coal combustion. The
study concludes that further research should explore additional
design strategies to decrease the building electricity load and the
resulting off-grid system size and embodied life-cycle impacts. The
off-grid case in that article has the same thermal properties as the
compact case in this study, except for the floor construction and a
larger window area.
In general, there is only a limited number of other studies of
container buildings with a simulation of the annual energy need in
the literature. An overview of these studies is presented in Table 1.
The model by Taleb et al. (2019) does not include the energy
need for plug loads, which is significant for residential buildings. It
is said that the indoor temperature was set to 21
C all year round,
which will cause a high cooling load during the cooling season.
Schiavoni et al. (2017) achieve the lowest annual energy need of
all the studies with 56 kWh/m2a. The main reason for the lower
energy need is that plug-loads, ventilation, and cooking is not
included.
Dara et al. (2019) modeled a residential building where four
12.2 m shipping containers are joined into a 12.2 m long and 9.75 m
wide two-story home for 3 persons. The container walls are insu-
lated with foam insulation on the inside, while OBS sheathing
covered with a hard plank siding are added on the outside. The
building façade also has an air barrier to ensure an airtightness of
0.6 ACH50, which means 0.6 air changes at 50 Pa pressure differ-
ence. The energy need is summed up as 108 kWh/m2a in the article,
but that is actually a combination of thermal and electric energy.
The article assumes an average COP of 3, which gives a total annual
electric energy need of 67 kWh/m2a.
Bowley and Mukhopadhyaya (2017) model an off-grid building
with a rated PV capacity of 7 kW. The storage capacity of the battery
bank is not given. 91% of the domestic hot water demand is covered
by a solar collector. The remaining 9% is covered by an air-to-water
heat pump. The space heating demand is fully covered by internal
loads, which together with the high heat loss from the windows
makes the energy need higher than in the compact case. The energy
simulation is performed in the software HOT2000, which is not a
dynamic simulation software (Otsubo, 2015). For off-grid simula-
tion, it is important to use dynamic simulation software to capture
the system dynamics and make sure that the load is met.
Among the few available studies, only one is designed for off-
grid operation. The existing studies often fail to consider all rele-
vant loads, especially plug-loads. This article aims to investigate the
viability of reaching off-grid operation with reasonable thermal
comfort for a container home within five different climates in
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al.
Table 1
Previous studies of container buildings with a simulation of the annual energy need.
Study Location Tamb,avg Area
[m2]
Grid-connected residential building (Taleb Aswan, 26.8
C 261
et al., 2019) Egypt
Residential nearly ZEB (Schiavoni et al., Perugia, 12.6
C 16
2017) Italy
Grid-connected residential building (Dara Calgary, 3.4
C 119
et al., 2019) Canada
Off-grid container house (Bowley and Victoria, 9.8
C 76
Mukhopadhyaya, 2017) Canada
(Tumminia et al., 2018) Messina, 18.4
C 45
Italy
China. Through improved control and energy efficiency, the goal is
to reduce the size of the off-grid energy system and consequently
the embodied GHG emissions. The study is significant because
China is accounting for about 50% of new construction globally (Ji
et al., 2017).
The target audience is mainly researchers, engineers, and de-
signers who plan similar buildings. Starting from measurements of
the heating and cooling load from a real demonstration building in
Shanghai, the TRNSYS simulation is calibrated based on measur-
ments from an on-site weather station for the same period. Finally,
the potential impact of climate change is discussed before the re-
sults are compared with other studies.
2. Case studies
The two case studies described in this article are small apart-
ments made from a single shipping container. Fig. 1 shows the
model and Fig. 2 shows the built design for the first case, with 9 m
external length. The internal length is 7.3 m as the remaining space
was reserved for the roof rainwater storage tank.
In Fig. 3, an alternative case study with improved insulation and
less window area is proposed.
The south-facing windows provide daylight and passive heat
gain from the sun during winter. To save water, a waterless, com-
posting toilet from Separett (2020) with low energy consumption
was chosen (Fig. 2a). Natural ventilation had previously been found
to provide the best compromise between energy use and cost for
the building, compared to mechanical and hybrid ventilation
(Kristiansen et al., 2020).
Table 2 and Table 3 present the specification for the two studied
cases. The U-values are calculated in TRNSYS based on the layers of
the structure and the building material properties. A concrete floor
was used to utilize floor heating in the compact case. The U-value of
the windows and glass door are from the TRNSYS 18 library for
double glazing (Window ID 3416) and triple glazing (Window ID
11302), respectively. The installation of VIP was found to reduce the
effect of thermal bridges, as studied through a 2D-heat flow anal-
ysis of the façade in THERM and through thermography of the
façade (Kristiansen et al., 2020), leading to a low normalized
Fig. 1. a) The south façade of the SketchUp model; b) Roof rainwater harvesting c) Floor plan.
Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312
Energy need Comments
[kWh/m2a]
1251 1
Uwall ¼ 0.87 W/m2K. Uglazing ¼ 1.6 W/m2K.
622 2
Uwall ¼ 0.19 W/m2K.
56 Uwall ¼ 0.085 W/m2K. 50 mm VIP in walls, roof and floor.
3003 3
Uwall ¼ 0.23 W/m2K.4 Uwall ¼ 0.11 W/m2K Adds shading, high airtightness,
1084 PCM, and increased thermal mass.
158 Passive house standard. Uwall ¼ 0.15 W/m2K. Uwindow ¼ 1.0 W/m2K.
80 Prefabricated building with light steel structure. Uwall ¼ 0.3 W/m2K.
Uglazing ¼ 1.1 W/m2K.
thermal bridge value.
A computer with a touch screen mounted on the wall (Fig. 2c)
serves as the webserver for the energy management system.
OpenHAB (openHAB, 2020), an open-source home automation
software, is connected to a MySQL database that logs the data from
the sensors, which are transferred to the computer through the
Modbus protocol. OpenHAB was chosen because it is a mature
platform that can connect to nearly any hardware. The building can
be remotely controlled through the OpenHAB app or a browser
(Fig. 4). It also makes it easy to monitor the system as well as adding
schedules, for instance for the air conditioner temperature setpoint.
This strengthens consumer engagement, while the off-grid design
push towards degrowth and sustainable consumer attitudes.
The sizing of the PV and battery storage was based upon a
comparison of Net Present Values of possible system configurations
in HOMER Pro (Energy, 2020) with an initial simulation load as
input. The PV system (see module specifications in Table A1.2) in
the base case was designed with a theoretical peak power of
5.5 kW.
Totally, 24 lead-carbon batteries (see specifications in
Table A1.3) are connected in series, giving a total capacity 24 kWh at
48 V. The manufacturer suggests a Depth of Discharge (DoD) limit
of 70% to maintain its expected lifetime of 4600 cycles. To account
for that the DoD at the end of the lifetime of the battery can be
expected to be 50%, a constant DoD of 60% is modeled.
3. Methodology
The hypothesis is that the proposed shipping container build-
ings have the potential to achieve off-grid operation with thermal
comfort in five major climate zones in China. To test the hypothesis
at a reasonable cost, simulation based on a verified building model
from a built case building in Shanghai was chosen. TRNSYS
(TRNSYS, 2019) was selected as the modeling software because IDA
ICE (EQUA, 2020) was found to be too pricey and Energy Plus (NREL,
2020) considers all buildings to be grid connected.
The energy consumption connected with equipment use has
been minimized, assuming that the occupants are living a simple
lifestyle for economic and environmental reasons.
3
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Fig. 2. The built demonstration building. a) Composting toilet; b) Living room and bedroom; c) Humidity and temperature sensor on the wall beside the touch screen of the energy
management system. d) South façade; e) Bird’s view.

Fig. 3. Compact design. a) North façade b) East façade c) South façade.

Table 2
Specification of design properties of two case studies.

Base case (as-built) Compact (Fig. 3)

PV, rated power [kW] 5.5 kW 2.75 kW

External dimensions 9.0m∙3.0m∙2.9m 6.1m∙2.4m∙2.9m
Heated floor area 7.3m∙2.8m 5.8m∙2.2m
Window-to-wall ratio 19% 9%
Upper and lower opening area (doors and windows) for natural 3 m2 þ 3 m2 with an average height difference of 3.1 m2 þ 1.8 m2 with an average height difference of
ventilation 1 m. 1 m.
Airtightness ACH50 1.7/h 1/h
U-values for Doors and windows, including the frame 2.80 W/m2∙K 0.71 W/m2∙K
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of windows 0.76 0.37
Normalized thermal bridge value 0.1 W/m2∙K 0.1 W/m2∙K
Occupancy [persons] 2 2

Table 3
Building partitions with their total heat transfer coefficient, U [W/m2K].

Case U [W/m2K] Building materials from outside to inside

Built case Floor 0.99 2 mm steel, 20 mm polyurethane, 20 mm wood, 2 mm PVC

Roof and external walls 0.26 2 mm steel, 50 mm mineral wool, 8 mm VIP, 3 mm bamboo
Compact case Floor 0.13 2 mm steel, 20 mm polyurethane, 150 mm concrete
Roof and external walls 0.10 2 mm steel, 60 mm mineral wool, 24 mm VIP, 3 mm bamboo

The main elements in the TRNSYS model are displayed in Fig. 5.
The printers and online plotters have been removed for clarity.
Some additional information about the settings for the components
can be found in Table A1.1.
3.1. The building model (type 56)
The building geometry was generated in TRNSYS3D, a plugin for
SketchUp (Fig. 6). The outdoor room towards the east is simplified
as a shading surface. Because the building only contains one HVAC
system, it was modeled as a single thermal zone. The solar azimuth
4
in the weather file was adjusted by subtracting 12
in accordance
with the built case study orientation.
The convective heat transfer coefficient, hext (kJ/hm2K), for the
external wall, windows and roof was adjusted according to the
wind speed in the weather file according to McAdams correlation
for rough surfaces (Equation (1)) (TRNSYS, 2017):
hext ¼ 3:6,ð3:8 , vwind þ 7:4Þ (1)
The convection coefficient for the ground floor was set to 0.001
kJ/hm2K according to the recommendation in the TRNSYS manual
for a direct connection to the ground (TRNSYS, 2017).
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Fig. 4. Screenshot from the developed smart home control system in openHAB.

Fig. 5. Screenshot from the model in TRNSYS 18.

Fig. 6. Building model from TRNSYS3D a) south and east facade b) north and west facade.

The infiltration was initially set to 1 h1, but a comparison be-
tween measurements and simulation based on real weather data
measured on-site in Section 4.1 shows that the real infiltration may
be as high as 1.7 h1. This was because the moisture barrier was not
installed in accordance with the construction requirements. This
shows the problem with the lack of experience many construction
workers have in constructing energy-efficient buildings, which is a
reason that industrial construction might provide better results. In
a factory, airtightness testing at 50 Pa pressure difference according
to ISO 9972:2015 can be a part of the quality control.
All the LED lights, totally 30 W, are expected to be on from 6 to 7
am and 6e10 p.m. In addition, heat gain from 2 persons, appliances,
and the hot water tank was added.
To define the thermal capacity of the zone, the TRNSYS manual
recommends to multiple the air only capacity by 5e15. The air
capacitance was therefore multiplied by 10 and set to 780 kJ/K due
to the relatively large amount of furniture and interior wall surface
area compared to the zone volume.
The exhaust fan in the bathroom was set to be on when the
bathroom lights were on (6e7 am, 6e7:30 p.m., and 9:30e10 p.m.)
with an airflow rate of 53 m3/h, which is the minimum according to
the Chinese standard (China, 2012). When the occupants are home,

5
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al.
they can ventilate by opening windows. Outside of occupancy
hours, the exhaust fan is turned on for the purpose of cooling at
200 m3/h when and the indoor temperature is both above 26
C and
more than five degrees above the ambient temperature.
The Capacitance Humidity Model was used with a Humidity
capacity ratio of 10 (TRNSYS, 2017).
3.2. The heat pump model and indoor temperature set-points
The air-to-air heat pump (Table A1.4) is modeled outside Type
56, with Type 119c. The heat pump is modeled in Type 56 as a
ventilation unit, with the supply airflow rate, air temperature, and
relative humidity set by the measured values from the output of
Type 119c. The temperature and relative humidity of the air that is
entering the indoor heat pump unit is given by the output from
Type 56. To prevent the heat pump from turning on and off at the
same temperature, the dead band is set to 2
C. Since the heat pump
model only has on/off control, the simulation time step is set to
5 min (TRNSYS, 2017).
The COP of the heat pump was adjusted at each timestep since it
was not possible to obtain enough data from the manufacturer to
generate a.dat file for the exact heat pump model. Therefore, the
ASHP_Cooling.dat and ASHP_Heating.dat from TRNSYS 18 example
files were used. The rated EER of the installed heat pump in cooling
mode is 4.17, according to the data in Table A1.4, found by dividing
the rated cooling power by the rated cooling input power. The rated
COP of the heat pump model in Cooling.dat is 3.12. The electric
energy need for the compressor for cooling is consequently
adjusted by a factor 4.17/3.12 ¼ 1.34. The electric energy need for
the compressor for heating is similarly adjusted by a factor 1.06.
This simplified method assumes that the COP variation due to
operating condition changes is equally proportional for different
heat pumps.
The heating setpoint is lowered during the night and outside
occupancy hours between 10 p.m. and 4 p.m. on the weekdays and
between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on the weekends. In addition, the
heating setpoint is increased when the SoC is above 95%. It is
decreased during months where the minimum ambient tempera-
ture is below 5
, except in the last stage of the modeling of the cold
climates where a generator is added to increase the energy supply.
Similarly, the cooling setpoint is increased on weekdays outside
of occupancy hours between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. In addition, the
cooling setpoint is lowered when the SoC is above 95% and the
minimum monthly ambient temperature is above 15
. When the
SoC is below 50% the cooling setpoint is increased to save energy.
3.3. Domestic hot water
The hot water load for showering for two persons is estimated
based on the calculation in Appendix 1. In the simulation, the
temperature of the water that is supplied to the hot water tank is
set equal to the mains water temperature from the weather file.
Since water heating is a deferable load, the water was supposed to
be heated during sunshine hours (09:00e15:00), when there will
be PV generation.
Domestic Hot Water (DHW) is either provided from a storage
tank with an electric heating coil. The heating coil is turned on if
there is excess electric energy at the inverter that would otherwise
be dumped and the tank temperature is below the higher cutoff
limit. The cutoff limit is 95
during the heating season and 65

otherwise to reduce internal heat gain during the cooling season. If
the tank temperature is above 45
C, DHW will be provided by the
thermal storage. If not, DHW will be provided by auxiliary heating.
The tank heat loss is set equal to 1 kJ/(h∙m2∙K).
The DHW load is increased by 30% if the SoC is above 90% and
6
Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312
gradually reduced to zero as the SoC drops below 80% towards the
minimum SoC which is set to 40% (Figure A1.1).
3.4. Equipment
According to the German passive house plan, more than 40% of
primary energy is consumed by household appliances (Voss and
Musall, 2013). In an off-grid building, however, it is essential to
keep this load low in weeks when there is expected to be limited PV
generation. The peak load from electric equipment is set to 500 W,
according to the schedules in Fig. 7 on weekdays and weekends.
The peaks are related to cooking. It is assumed that a slow cooker is
used to improve energy efficiency and reduce the peak load from
cooking.
3.5. Occupancy schedules
Occupant behavior is a leading source of uncertainty in pre-
dicting building energy use. The occupancy schedules have been set
up based on a survey of 3424 homes in four Chinese cities (Hu et al.,
2019). That study showed that the occupancy schedules are quite
stable over the year for the same home but varies dramatically from
home to home. Generally, there is only someone at home 40%e50%
of the time, while full space occupancy in all rooms is assumed in
Chinese building codes. A more realistic occupancy schedule will
reduce the energy need for heating and cooling, as it is common
practice to turn off the air conditioner when there is no one home.
Based on the main results from that study (Cluster L1, B2, S2, and
K4) and by combining the results for rooms with multiple func-
tions, the schedules in Fig. 8 has been obtained:
Since it is assumed that the persons who live in the container
building are young and are working, it was further simplified by
assuming that there is no one home between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on
weekdays. On the weekend the two persons were assumed to
present under design conditions.
3.6. Climates and locations
Totally 5 locations with different temperature profiles ranging
from Guangzhou in the south to Harbin in the north of China were
selected (Table 4 and Fig. 9).
Energy Plus provides IWEC files from ASHRAE for these loca-
tions based on weather data from 1982 to 1999 (Thevenard and
Brunger, 2001). The main simulations were based on these
weather files, but sensitivity analysis was made based on climate
change predictions for 2020 and 2050. The weather files have then
been morphed in Excel through the CCWorldWeatherGen (Jentsch
et al., 2013). The climate change prediction is based on emission
scenario A2 in IPCC Report AR3 (IPCC, 2001) and AR4 (IPCC, 2007).
According to the generated weather files, the average temperature
in Shanghai increase from 16.3
C with the IWEC weather file to
17.2
C in 2020 and 18.5
C in 2050, as seen in Fig. 10. Based on
comparison with weather data from Solargis (2020), where the
average temperature in Shanghai is 17.5
C the climate change
predictions seem reasonable.
3.7. The simulation process
The online plotter was used to get an overview of the system
behavior, particularly SoC, indoor temperature, and dumped en-
ergy. It was observed that the heating turned off as the lower SoC
was reached during periods in the winter with low PV generation.
Consequently, the load and indoor temperature setpoints were
reduced in months with low ambient temperature to prevent that
the lower state of charge was reached. It was also observed that the
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Fig. 7. Schedules of the load factor for plug loads in the weekdays and weekends.

Fig. 8. Occupancy schedules based on a study of Chinese households (Hu et al., 2019).

7
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Table 4
Climate, average temperature, and annual precipitation in the selected locations.

City € ppen-Geiger classification (Beck et al., 2018)

Climate according to Ko Average annual temperature Annual precipitation

Guangzhou Humid-subtropical (Cfa) 22.2
C 1720 mm

Shanghai Humid-subtropical (Cfa) 16.1
C 1066 mm
Kunming Warm and temperate (Cwb) 15.2
C 999 mm
Lanzhou Local steppe climate (BSk) 9.9
C 327 mm
Harbin Cold and temperate (Dwa) 3.4
C 562 mm

Fig. 9. Monthly average temperatures for the five simulated locations in China.

Fig. 10. Monthly averages for ambient temperature and global horizontal radiation in Shanghai-based the generated climate files and measurements.

Fig. 11. Comparison of simulation and measurements in January.

amount of dumped energy was high, so loads were increased when angles. The output (.out) file from the simulation was copied into an
SoC was near to full charge to prevent dumped energy. Excel sheet. Other sheets in the same workbook analyzed the data
Parametric studies were used to evaluate the sensitivity to through references to the output sheets.
changed parameters, for instance different tank sizes and PV tilt

8
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al.
4. Results and analysis
4.1. TRNSYS building model calibration
To calibrate the heating and cooling load in the building model,
real-time measurements were performed for a week in January and
a week in June. The power meters and Pt 100 temperature sensors
have an uncertainty of ±10 Wh and ±0.35
C, respectively. A
weather file was generated in Elements (BigLadder, 2015) based on
measurements of dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, dew
point temperature, wind speed, and solar irradiation from an onsite
weather station. The simulation was then performed under actual
weather conditions. Originally, the calibration was meant to be
done based on a longer measurement period, but due to intermit-
tent operation due to ongoing testing of the building automation
system followed by a component error in July only two weeks with
data during stable operation was obtained before August 2019.
Because the weather station was out of order between August 2019
and June 2020, it was not possible to generate a weather file for an
extended period.
It was found that when the infiltration was adjusted to 1.7 it was
a good match between the model and the measurements (Figs. 11
and 12). As seen from Fig. 11, the simulated indoor temperature
fluctuates slightly more than the measured, following the outdoor
temperature. This is because the TRNSYS heat pump compressor
has on-off control, while the actual heat pump has variable speed.
But most importantly, the validation shows that the heating load is
equal when the average indoor temperature is equal. From January
21 to January 27 the average measured and simulated heat pump
load was 428 W and 432 W, respectively.
The peak in Fig. 11 is caused by that the heat pump turns on at
almost full capacity for a short period. Hourly logging was used
during this measurement period so it may seem from Fig. 11 that
the heat pump is operating at high power for a longer time, but it is
actually just capturing the startup power in a short moment.
From June 4 to June 10 the average measured and simulated heat
pump load was 118 W and 115 W, respectively. Due to the good
match between the measured and simulated heat pump load,
which is the main load in the building, the building model was
accepted.
4.2. Energy and indoor climate simulation
The same control strategies and design have been applied for all
locations to compare the performance under similar conditions.
The simulation results are presented in Table 5. Two cases are
studied, the Base case (BC) and the Compact case (CC) according to
Table 2. PV is the generation from photovoltaics. Heatingel and
Coolingel are the energy use for the heat pump. Plug-loads repre-
sent electric appliances. The category “Other” represent Lights,
Fig. 12. Comparison of simulation and measurements in June.
9
Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312
water pump, and fans. “Dumped” is the percentage of the PV
generation that would be dumped unless the energy use is
increased before periods with excess energy, which typically occur
on sunny days outside of occupancy hours. The places that are
simulated are Harbin (HA), Guangzhou (GU), Kunming (KU),
Shanghai (SH), and Lanzhou (LA). D is the change from the base case
to the compact case. Indoor temperature and “Hours per year” only
consider the 5110 h of the year from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. when the
building is occupied every day. The building is particularly
vulnerable to periods with little PV generation and colder weather,
because of the high temperature difference between the ambient
temperature and the setpoint combined with a low COP for the heat
pump. For detailed results, see monthly averages in Appendix 2 and
joint average values for all 5 locations in Table A3.1.
4.2.1. The base case
For the five locations, the energy need for heating contributes to
30% of the energy use on average, twice as much as for cooling. Plug
loads (35%) and DHW (17%) are the other major loads.
According to Table 5, the base case can achieve off-grid opera-
tion with thermal comfort in Guangzhou. A study of Fig. 14b later
also shows that there will be thermal comfort in Kunming, as the
hours with low temperature at nighttime is acceptable. For the
other three locations, thermal comfort is gradually reduced as the
climate gets colder. In the coldest climate, Harbin, the indoor
temperature is below 15
C around half of the time the occupants
are at home.
The amount of energy that is dumped is high, on average 36%.
This energy is mostly dumped outside of occupancy hours during
the spring and the autumn when there is a low energy need for the
heat pump. Part of this energy could be used by increasing the use
of plug loads and hot water in advance based on forecasts. Alter-
natively, deferable loads like a washing machine or a room dehu-
midifier could automatically be powered on when there is excess
electricity.
There is a significant span in the energy generation for the same
amount of PV in the five locations, with a 59% higher generation in
Harbin than in Guangzhou. None of the locations have problems
with overheating, as the PV generation also tends to be high during
the cooling season. In addition, a lower temperature difference
between the ambient temperature and the indoor temperature
during the summer leads to a 64% higher COP for heating than for
cooling on average. During the coldest days in winter, when the
energy need is highest, the COP is lowest. The energy need for
heating of domestic hot water will also follow the ambient tem-
perature if an uninsulated storage tank is placed above the ground
as in Fig. 1.
The colder climates have less energy need for plug loads due to
the load shedding in the control system that directs the electric
energy towards the heat pump. The average SoC is 82%, which
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Table 5
Overview of the annual building performance of the base case based on TRNSYS simulation.

Energy per square meter floor area [kWh/m2a] Dumped SoC COP Indoor Temp. [
C] Hours per year

Place Case PV Heatingel Coolingel Plug-loads DHW Other % % Cooling Heating Ti avg Ti max Ti min Ti < 15 Ti < 5 Ti < -5

HA BC 357.5 102.9 11.1 36.7 26.2 5.3 36.7% 76.6 3.9 1.8 13.4 29.1 19.7 2316.4 1224.8 618.1
HA CC 272.3 67.4 12.7 53.4 35.8 7.8 20.2% 77.3 3.8 1.7 17.0 29.1 12.3 1613.8 875.4 187.3
D e 34.5% 14.4% 45.5% 36.5% 48.5% 16.4% 0.9% 1.1% 5.6% 4 0 7 703 349 431
GU BC 225.4 4.2 51.1 61.9 26.8 5.5 20.7% 76.7 3.8 2.7 23.4 27.5 9.9 229.5 0.0 0.0
GU CC 171.7 1.4 43.2 61.5 29.0 8.4 1.8% 64.5 3.8 2.6 24.4 29.0 13.3 50.6 0.0 0.0
D e 67.9% 15.5% 0.6% 8.2% 52.8% 18.9% 15.9% 0.4% 3.1% 1 1 3 179 0 0
KU BC 313.6 16.8 9.4 66.3 30.8 5.6 0.5% 93.0 3.8 2.5 21.4 29.1 10.8 484.2 0.0 0.0
KU CC 238.9 5.3 12.3 83.6 36.2 8.6 0.3% 86.8 3.8 2.4 23.6 29.0 14.4 6.6 0.0 0.0
D e 68.6% 30.0% 26.1% 17.3% 54.6% 0.2% 6.7% 0.9% 3.1% 2 0 4 478 0 0
SH BC 271.0 31.8 30.0 52.5 23.2 5.5 33.7% 83.7 3.7 2.4 20.7 28.5 2.1 978.8 24.8 0.0
SH CC 206.4 14.1 27.2 66.6 27.8 8.5 12.5% 80.8 3.8 2.3 22.8 29.0 11.0 227.6 0.0 0.0
D e 55.7% 9.2% 26.9% 19.9% 55.7% 21.2% 3.5% 1.3% 3.2% 2.1 0.5 8.9 751.2 24.8 0.0
LA BC 325.5 69.8 11.7 44.9 23.9 5.3 39.4% 81.6 3.9 2.2 18.5 29.2 4.7 1498.3 351.3 0.0
LA CC 248.0 37.9 14.4 68.1 32.6 8.5 17.6% 84.9 3.8 2.1 21.1 29.1 3.6 799.4 11.1 0.0
D e 45.7% 23.4% 51.7% 36.5% 60.0% 21.7% 4.1% 0.7% 4.1% 2.6 0.1 8.3 698.8 340.3 0.0

indicates that the energy coverage is good, it is only the peak load
that creates a challenge in off-grid operation.
For Guangzhou, the challenge is the first three months of the
year. Table A2.1 confirms that the reason for the low indoor tem-
perature (Fig. 13b) and the low SoC (Fig. 13a) in the first four
months is the low PV generation. Although the average ambient
temperature is almost equal in December and February, there is
more dumped energy in December (Fig. 13c) because the PV gen-
eration is almost three times higher. From the weather file, it can be
observed that the average global horizontal radiation in February is
only half of the average for December. The average indoor relative
humidity level is 60%, without including humidity generation from
cooking, showering, and occupants. That means that dehumidifi-
cation is needed to ensure a healthy indoor environment.
Kunming has the best SoC profile among all the five locations
and never reaches the lower limit of 40%, which is positive for
prolonging the lifetime of the batteries (Fig. 14a). Some energy
saving is obtained by lowering the indoor temperature outside of
occupancy hours and during the night (Fig. 14b). The high amount
of dumped energy between November and June (Fig. 14c) means
that it would often be possible to increase the indoor temperature a
little or use more plug loads or hot water during this period.
For Shanghai, January and February are not only the two months
with the highest energy need for heating but also the two months
with the lowest PV generation. This causes periods with low SoC
(Fig. 15a) and lower indoor temperatures (Fig. 15b) when it is
cloudy, but the thermal comfort is still acceptable. Compared to
Guangzhou (Table A2.1), Shanghai (Table A2.3) have a higher SoC
due to higher PV generation and lower ambient average tempera-
ture between June and August. As expected, the periods with most
dumped energy is in the spring and autumn (Fig. 15c). The average
indoor relative humidity level is 58% without considering internal
sources of humidity, so again dehumidification is needed.
In Lanzhou, the winter, particularly December and January, is
much colder than the three previous locations (Fig. 9). Therefore,
the SoC goes frequently down to the lower limit, causing freezingly
cold indoor temperatures at night and outside of occupancy hours
(Fig. 16).

Fig. 13. Simulation of the base case in Guangzhou. a) State of Charge; b) Indoor temperature; c) Dumped energy as the percentage of the PV generation.

10
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Fig. 14. a) Simulation of the base case in Kunming. State of Charge; b) Indoor temperature; c) Dumped energy as the percentage of the PV generation.

Fig. 15. Simulation of the base case in Shanghai. a) State of Charge; b) Indoor temperature; c) Dumped energy as the percentage of the PV generation.

Harbin has extreme cold winter, as seen in Fig. 9. From April to
October, however, the fact that Harbin has the highest PV genera-
tion among the studied location at the same time as there is almost
no need for mechanical cooling contributes to a high SoC (Fig. 17a)
and some dumped energy (Fig. 17c). Another peak source for
heating together with better insulation is needed (Fig. 17b).
Otherwise, installing PVT and connecting the flat plat collectors to a
thermal storage tank to supplement the heating from the heat
pump with low-temperature floor heating would be a solution to
improve the thermal comfort.
4.2.2. Energy and indoor climate simulation of the compact case
As the measurements and base case simulations indicate that it
11
will be hard to achieve a high standard of thermal comfort in lo-
cations with cold winters, the compact case was simulated
(Table 6). The benefit of the compact case is that a small container is
easier to transport by a truck to the site. Fewer windows also reduce
the amount of structural steel that is needed during construction.
Compared to the base case, Table A3.1 shows that the number of
hours with temperature under 15
C is reduced by 562 h on
average, although the installed PV capacity has been halved. For the
compact case, thermal comfort is good in both Guangzhou,
Shanghai, and Kunming. The amount of cooling per square meter is
reduced by 3% on average compared to the base case, meaning that
the increased insulation level does not cause overheating. The
compact case has 20% lower dumped electric energy on average.
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312

Fig. 16. Simulation of the base case in Lanzhou. a) State of Charge; b) Indoor temperature; c) Dumped energy as the percentage of the PV generation.

Fig. 17. Simulation of the base case in Harbin. a) State of Charge; b) Indoor temperature; c) Dumped energy as the percentage of the PV generation.

The amount of heating is reduced by 56% on average, allowing more

energy for plug loads and hot water compared to the base case. In
addition, the minimum temperature is increased by 6
C, and the
Table 6
number of hours below 15
C is halved. The embodied emissions
Average electric energy need for the case studies with PV considering climate
change. are reduced by 3.6 ton CO2eq due to 50% less installed PV capacity
than in the original design, according to the Ecoinvent 3.6 Global
Location Annual energy need [kWh/m2]
dataset.
BC, IWEC CC, IWEC CC, 2020 CC, 2050 By installing PV/T, thermal storage, and floor heating the ther-
Guangzhou 130.3 136.5 134.5 133.8 mal comfort in Lanzhou becomes acceptable with only 320 h a year
Shanghai 121.8 134.1 132.9 137.7 with an indoor temperature below 15
C, with a minimum indoor
Kunming 98.3 133.0 139.5 147.5 temperature of 9
C (Table A3.3). In Harbin, PV/T especially helps to
Lanzhou 131.8 140.1 150.1 149.5
Harbin 157.9 161.7 159.6 156.0
reduce the number of hours with indoor temperature below 5
C.

12
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al.
However, more heating is still needed as the indoor temperature is
below 5
C for more than 500 h a year.
A generator would require around 837 and 1168 L diesel per year
in Lanzhou and Harbin, respectively. This means that it would be
required to have truck delivery of diesel. In Lanzhou, this would
help to raise the minimum indoor temperature to 15
C. In both
locations, the amount of domestic hot water would also be more
than doubled (Table A3.3). However, it is questionable whether it is
practical and affordable to have the diesel delivered and stored. In
Harbin, it could be a solution to stack a group of containers
together. Thereby is as the containers would have more adjacent
surfaces and less external surfaces. External insulation of the con-
tainers could also be considered, as long as it would still be practical
to transport the modules. To reduce the heat loss to the ground, the
foundation could also be insulated.
4.2.3. Predictions of the impact of climate change towards 2050
As buildings often are planned with a 50-year lifetime they
should be planned with the possible climate change in mind.
Table 6 presents the annual energy need per square meter for the
case study building based on simulations with the weather files
presented in section 2. Here the part of the energy for heating of
DHW that comes from the thermal storage is withdrawn, only the
electric auxiliary heating is included. Therefore, the sum of the
elements in Table 5 is higher than the results in Table 6.
Although climate change is not desirable when all consequences
are taken into account, the predicted climate change improves the
thermal comfort for the compact case in all the locations
(Table A3.1). The energy need for space heating during the chal-
lenging heating season could be reduced by 10% and 23% in 2020
and 2050, respectively. Although the energy need for cooling on
average may increase by 19% in 2020 and by 42% in 2050 compared
to the simulation based on IWEC data, the energy system is able to
provide enough cooling to prevent the maximum indoor temper-
ature from increasing.
4.2.4. Comparison with previous studies
The electric energy need for the compact case is in the range
133e161 kWh/m2a based on the IWEC weather files. The average
energy need for the five previous studies in Table 1 is 110 kWh/m2a.
The models with lower occupancy rate per square meter, for
instance Taleb et al. (2019), naturally have a lower energy need per
square meter for domestic hot water. The locations with high or low
average temperatures naturally have a higher energy need, while
the two studies from Italy in the Mediterranean climate need less
heating and cooling.
The compact case has almost the same U-value for the wall as in
the study by Schiavoni et al. (2017), but only use half the amount of
VIP by combining VIP with less expensive mineral wool insulation.
Thereby, substantial cost savings are achieved as 8 mm VIP panels
currently has a price of 125 ¥/m2 (18.6 USD/m2) in China. Schiavoni
et al. (2017) also use foam insulation on the inside and outside of
the container wall, which is also more expensive than traditional
insulation materials. Together with the wooden cladding, this
makes the design more costly, but for cooling dominated climates it
can pay back in terms of reduced investment cost for energy gen-
eration and storage. The mean ambient temperature is similar to
the one in Kunming and Lanzhou. If the only internal heat gain is
from the occupancy of 1 person it is understandable that the
cooling load is only around 7 kWh/m2a. Plug-loads contribute to
68.1 kWh/m2 and 83.6 kWh/m2a for the compact case in Lanzhou
and Kunming, respectively. The total for Lanzhou and Kunming in
Table 6 without plug-loads is 72.0 kWh/m2a and 49.4 kWh/m2a,
respectively. The domestic hot water load is around 14 kWh/m2 in
the study by Schiavoni et al. (2017), while it is 34.4 kWh/m2a on
13
Journal of Cleaner Production 286 (2021) 125312
average for Kunming and Lanzhou. The difference in the DHW load
is mainly caused by that the current study considers an occupancy
of two persons, while Schiavoni et al. (2017) consider an occupancy
of a single person. In addition, the year is divided into a cooling
season and a heating season, so there is never heating and cooling
at the same day. This might lead to a compromised thermal comfort
part of the year. The compact case ends up with a similar energy
need as the case study modeled by Schiavoni et al. (2017), but with
less costly insulation thanks to better control and the upgrade to
three-layer glazing for the windows. According to a previous Net
Present Cost evaluation of energy conservation measures for the
container home, upgrading the windows is more profitable than
investing in more VIP insulation (Kristiansen et al., 2020) because
the additional cost for triple glazing is typically only 25% higher
(Howell, 2020).
The study by Dara et al. (2019) is mainly an LCA study and lacks
detailed information about the energy simulation. It is reasonable
that the DHW load and the plug-loads only contribute to 22.9 kWh/
m2a and 13.1 kWh/m2a since the floor area is large, but how can the
electric energy need for heating and cooling be only 21.6 kWh/m2a?
The external surface area is not that much smaller than in the
compact case study and the U-value for the external walls are twice
as high.
The window area in the model by Taleb et al. (2019) is almost
twice as high as in the compact case and the U-value of the win-
dows is more than twice as high. Shading is not discussed, but the
improved windows have a low emissivity coating. It is questionable
how the energy need could become so low as 62 kWh/m2a with the
ambient temperature reaching over 45
C during the summer, but
the solution with a green roof is said to reduce the cooling load to
almost half due to the high thermal mass. The roof thickness of over
70 cm would also make it more difficult to ship the container. The
mean annual temperature is 4.8
C higher than in Guangzhou,
where the energy need without plug-loads is 82 kWh/m2a.
Tumminia et al. (2018) model a Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB)
in Messina, which has a slightly colder climate than Guangzhou.
One of the reasons for that the energy need is 71% lower than for
the compact case in Guangzhou is that it is modeled as an office
building with no need for domestic hot water. The building is also
only occupied 45 h a week. The main loads are appliances (71%) and
heating and cooling (27%). Ventilation is only activated through
opening windows when the outdoor temperature is between 18
and 26
C. Thereby, ventilation neither requires energy for fans nor
increase the energy need for heating and cooling.
5. Conclusions
A detailed TRNSYS simulation has considered control strategies
and solutions for heating and cooling to achieve off-grid operation
in five major climate zones in China. A central part of the off-grid
design is to prioritize among the loads. Heating and cooling have
been prioritized in the simulation by gradually shedding DHW
consumption and plug-loads as the batteries state of charge is
lowered. To reduce the size of the off-grid energy system, and
thereby the embodied emissions, the system performance is
increased by:
 introducing thermal storage to reduce the amount of dumped
energy
 shifting deferable loads
 adding control of ventilation and indoor temperature based on
ambient temperature, SoC, day, and time.
Thereby the embodied emissions of the PV array are reduced by
3.6 ton CO2eq due to 50% less installed PV capacity than in the built
A.B. Kristiansen, B.Y. Zhao, T. Ma et al.
design. The study provides a reference for the thermal comfort that
can be achieved. The base case with PV can achieve off-grid oper-
ation with thermal comfort in a temperate or subtropical climate. In
colder climates, it is recommended to lower the U-values of the
envelope and add PVT, floor heating, and a generator to avoid in-
door temperatures below 0
C. This makes it more expensive to
achieve off-grid operation with thermal comfort in climates with
cold winters. The case studies are vulnerable to periods with low PV
generation and cold weather, due to low COP for the heat pump and
higher energy need for heating of domestic hot water. An air-to-air
heat pump with higher COP in the winter is therefore suggested in
climates with cold winters.
The predicted climate change will improve the thermal comfort
in the building for all climate zones as the heating demand is
reduced and the cooling system can counteract the increased
cooling demand.
Future research should look at how a micro-grid of container
buildings with a shared energy system could reduce the embodied
emissions and increase the reliability of supply.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
A.B. Kristiansen: Visualization, Methodology, Data curation,
Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.
B.Y. Zhao: Investigation, Software. T. Ma: Supervision. R.Z. Wang:
Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources,
Conceptualization.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dr. Irvin Xu for designing the Energy Man-
agement System in OpenHAB and for connecting the electrical
system. We would also like to thank Phillip Vernon for proofreading
the manuscript. This paper has been written with funding support
from NSFC (Grant No.: 51521004).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125312.
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