Environmental Technology & Innovation 28 (2022) 102884

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Environmental Technology & Innovation

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

Effect of the envelope structure on the indoor thermal

environment of low-energy residential building in humid
subtropical climate: In case of brick–timber vernacular
dwelling in China
∗ ∗
Wenheng Zheng a , , Fangfang Wei a , Shaoying Su a , Jianjun Cai a , , Junxiao Wei b ,
Rong Hu a
a
School of Architecture and Traffic, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China
b
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, China

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: The brick–timber structure plays a crucial role in creating a comfort indoor thermal
Received 4 August 2022 environment for low-energy vernacular dwellings. Herein, the thermal environment
Received in revised form 17 August 2022 of the dwelling was studied by DesignBuilder software and evaluated using Adaptive
Accepted 18 August 2022
Predicted Mean Vote (APMV) index. These results revealed that the indoor damp and
Available online 24 August 2022
cold feelings intensified in winter, and the mountain as a natural wind barrier weakened
Keywords: the attack of the prevailing wind in winter. These results leaded that the wind speed of
Humid subtropical climate the tested room was lower than 0.1 m/s. The thermal comfort satisfactory days in a year
Brick–timber structure accounts for 56.2%, and the overall level of indoor thermal environment was low in the
Indoor thermal environment rest of the year, especially in winter. The simple structure of the exterior envelope and
Natural ventilation the single material were the main reasons for the poor indoor thermal environment
of naturally ventilated buildings. Therefore, optimization strategies such as increasing
the insulation materials of the envelope and adopting insulating glass windows were
proposed. Compared to that before the retrofitting, the overall thermal environment
grade of the vernacular dwelling has been improved by 4.7% (grade I), -0.3% (grade II)
and -4.3% (grade III), respectively. The poor thermal performance and airtightness of the
envelope easily lead to the negative effect of outdoor cold, heat and water vapor entering
the house, which affects the thermal environment grade. These conclusions provided
a reference for the optimization of the thermal environment of existing low-energy
vernacular dwellings in subtropical humid climate areas.
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

Global warming and the dramatic increase in building energy consumption have led to research into ways to maintain
indoor thermal comfort and develop low-energy buildings. Compared to other building materials, wood has a low carbon
footprint as a clean energy source (Hafner and Schäfer, 2017), which is beneficial for sustainable development (Dalalah
et al., 2022). In addition, it has the advantages of good seismic performance (Liang et al., 2022), carbon sequestra-
tion (Ximenes and Grant, 2013), renewables (Zubizarreta et al., 2019) and environmental friendliness (Asdrubali et al.,

∗ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: visitzheng@guet.edu.cn (W. Zheng), caijianjun@mails.guet.edu.cn (J. Cai).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2022.102884
2352-1864/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
W. Zheng, F. Wei, S. Su et al. Environmental Technology & Innovation 28 (2022) 102884

2017). Therefore, wood is often used as a material for building envelopes and is widely distributed in countries such as
Japan (Gerilla et al., 2007), Canada (Head et al., 2020), America (Ellingwood et al., 2004) and China (Wang and Chiou,
2019).
For naturally ventilated buildings, the overall energy consumption of buildings is low, but at the same time, the
satisfaction of indoor comfort also decreases (Bienvenido-Huertas et al., 2020; Buonocore et al., 2020). Even naturally
ventilated buildings in mild climate areas still have problems maintaining indoor comfort (Ameur et al., 2020). The
design of enclosure structure is the main element of the building climate adaptability and the medium of communication
between indoor and outdoor environment (Franco et al., 2019; Li and Zhu, 2021; Amraoui et al., 2021). (Vijayan et al.,
2021) summarized various methods to enhance the thermal performance of walls, pointing out that the heat transfer of
wall materials affects the internal environment of buildings. In order to maintain a good indoor thermal environment,
appropriate envelope structure should be used according to the local conditions. For example, thick external walls were
often used in buildings that pay attention to cold protection in winter (Nie et al., 2019) and heat insulation in summer
(Medjelekh et al., 2016; Stazi et al., 2014). Buildings that focus on shading and cooling in summer prefer light and thin
exterior walls to achieve better ventilation effect (Xu et al., 2016). Despite the adoption of a variety of passive design
strategies, the indoor thermal environment of buildings in different climates still has problems. Residential buildings in
extremely cold areas usually suffer from the lack of energy saving technology; therefore, energy consumption is high (Pan
and Mei, 2020). And the wood structure building was less airtight and has more thermal bridges (Bjarløv and Vladykova,
2011), which tends to cause a poor indoor thermal environment. The south-facing envelope was made of wood and
glass materials with low thermal inertia (Nie et al., 2019), and the overall thermal performance of the building was
improved by adding insulation or using wood pellet fuel (Qin et al., 2018). Windows are just as important as the exterior
envelope, and their cold-proofing and energy-saving effects should not be overlooked (Zhang, 2021). The tropical climates
are characterized by year-round heat. The indoor thermal comfort of wooden houses located in tropical coastal areas and
tropical mountainous areas is different; Compared with tropical mountainous areas, indoor temperatures in coastal areas
were lower (Hendriani et al., 2017), which was more comfortable for residents (Hermawan et al., 2015). Bin Marsono
et al. (2015) combined precast concrete with wood, which would not only improve the damage to the wood from the
hot and humid climate of Malaysia, but would also release less CO2 emissions.
Although the mild climate region does not have the extremely cold and sizzling hot climate characteristics of the
above region, the indoor thermal environment and comfort of the buildings still cannot meet the needs of people. Many
researchers (Stazi et al., 2014; Albatayneh, 2021; Barreca et al., 2017) have studied the relationship between thermal
performance of building envelope and indoor thermal environment in Mediterranean climate region. Some studies (Xu
et al., 2016; Goto et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2009; Jin et al., 2021) have focused on humid subtropical climates with hot,
humid summers and warm, humid winters. Wood is prone to biodegradation and mold growth under warm and humid
conditions, therefore; Goto et al. (2016) developed a wooden building envelope open to water vapor for Japan. Yang et al.
(2009) showed that different types of natural ventilation buildings in subtropical humid areas have insufficient indoor
ventilation to meet the comfort of occupants, and 66.3% of the occupants hope for warmer winter. Xu et al. (2016) found
that the difference between indoor and outdoor temperature of wooden-plank dwellings is small in summer, and natural
ventilation can further improve indoor thermal comfort. Jin et al. (2021) showed that the humidity of Dong stilt dwelling
met the requirements except in the morning. Study (Zhu et al., 2015) shows that the subtropical humid climate of China
is mainly distributed south of the Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River. Liu et al. (2022) used the boundary between
subtropical zone and warm temperate zone to divide north and south China instead of the Qinling-Huaihe Line, pointing
out that the average population density of south China in 2020 was 327 people per square kilometer, showing a situation
of ‘‘dense south and sparse north’’. China is one of the countries where wood structure is widely used. As the standard
of living improved, wood structure buildings were no longer just a single wood material, but gradually developed into
a mix of wood and brick or concrete composition to maintain the interior environment and enhance structural stability.
Existing studies are mostly concentrated in Japan, and other places such as Changsha and Chongqing in China. These
buildings are mostly of all-wood construction, which differs greatly from the brick–timber dwellings in Hezhou. Brick–
timber vernacular dwelling is one of the main residential forms in subtropical humid climate of Guangxi. The economy
of Guangxi region is relatively backward, and many mature thermal environment building technologies are difficult to
be directly used in this region. Study have shown (Santamouris et al., 2014) that the houses of low-income people are
usually not equipped with thermal insulation measures and require a lot of money to compensate for the discomfort of
the interior, which is contradictory to the economic level. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the thermal performance
of buildings in economically backward areas and make improvement plans to improve their indoor thermal environment.
In addition, studying the relationship between the envelope thermal performance and the indoor thermal environment,
the formation and evaluation of the indoor thermal environment of the residential houses are rare. And most of them
only stop at the evaluation of the current thermal performance, and do not propose a retrofit solution and re-evaluation.
Some studies showed that energy consumption software (such as EnergyPlus (Tong et al., 2021), CFD Fluent (Stazi et al.,
2013), DesignBuilder (Zhou et al., 2021), etc.) can be used to simulate the relationship between thermal performance
of building envelope and indoor thermal environment. Measures such as improving the insulation and heat storage of
the envelope structure (Wi et al., 2020), optimizing the window–wall ratio (Shao et al., 2017) and reasonably setting up
the sunlight room (Liu et al., 2019) were taken to improve the living level and reduce the living energy consumption.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the thermal performance and indoor thermal environment of rural residential
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W. Zheng, F. Wei, S. Su et al. Environmental Technology & Innovation 28 (2022) 102884

Fig. 1. Appearance and internal structure of vernacular dwelling.

buildings in subtropical humid area, and to take corresponding measures to optimize them. The rural area of Hezhou,
Guangxi was used as a case study. In the winter, the thermal and humid environmental parameters of typical brick–
timber structure dwelling in this area were measured. The paper analyzed and summarized the shortcomings of the
indoor thermal environment, proposed the optimization scheme, and verified the feasibility and improvement effect of
the scheme. This study aims to provide reference for the design and optimization of the indoor thermal environment of
brick–timber vernacular dwellings in this climate area.

2. Methodology

2.1. Study dwelling

The studied dwelling named Yingjia Elderly Association, is located in Yingjia Village, southwest of Zhongshan County,
Hezhou City, Guangxi Province, China. The climate in Hezhou according to the global Köeppen–Geiger climate classification
is Cfa (warm temperate climate with hot summers and mild winters) (Kottek et al., 2006). According to China’s National
Standard of Climatic Regionalization for Architecture (GB50176-2016) (China National Standard, 2016), Hezhou belongs
to the hot summer and warm winter climate zone. The annual average temperature is 20 ◦ C. The mean outdoor air
temperature of the hottest month (August) and coldest month (January) is 28 ◦ C and 11 ◦ C, respectively. The dwelling is
naturally ventilated building, located in the middle of the ancient street, facing southeast. There are other buildings on
the north and south sides, and separated from the dwellings on the opposite side by an ancient street. There is no shelter
behind the dwelling, which directly connected to the main street of the village. Traditional brick–timber dwellings are
mainly built with wood, brick and stone. The roof of the dwelling is composed of two small grey tile double slope roofs
with high front and low back, and the ground is paved with floor tiles. The upper and lower layers of the east exterior wall
are single-layer wood-frame windows and unsealed window openings respectively. The window hole of the west exterior
wall is closed by plastic film. Fig. 1 demonstrates the appearance of vernacular dwelling. Table 1 lists the thermophysical
of dwelling envelopes.

2.2. Field measurement

The measurement of indoor thermal environment was conducted from 18:00 on 27th December 2019 to 18:00 on
29th December 2019. The weather was clear during the test. The measurement data includes solar radiation, indoor and
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Table 1
Thermal performance parameters of envelope materials.
Table data source: Literature (China National Standard, 2016; Di and Wang, 2014).
Material Thermal conductivity W/(m K) Specific heat J/(kg K) Density kg/m3 Heat storage coefficient W/(m2 K)
Grey brick 0.65 840 1920 7.73
Fir 0.23 2510 500 5.55
Grey tile 0.43 920 2800 –
Stone 1.16 920 2000 12.56
Gypsum 0.81 1050 1600 10.07
Glass 0.76 840 2500 10.69

Fig. 2. (a) Building simulation model and (b) the distribution of measuring points.

outdoor air temperature, surfaces temperature of the envelope, black bulb temperature, relative humidity, air velocity,
heat flux of envelope structure. Fig. 2b shows the measuring points, and the instruments and parameters are shown in
the Table S1 and Fig. S1. In addition, two measuring points were placed outdoors, one in front of the main entrance of
the building, to measure road temperature and wind speed. The other is the meteorological parameter measuring point,
which is set on the roof of the adjacent building. The test heights of air temperature and relative humidity were 0.1 m,
0.6 m and 1.1 m, and the test heights of air velocity, black bulb temperature and carbon dioxide concentration were all
set at 0.6 m (JGJ/T, 2016). During the test, the east and west doors were fully opened during the day and closed at night.

2.3. Evaluation index

APMV evaluation index is widely used in the study of thermal environment of buildings such as school buildings (Song
et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2017) and residential buildings (Chen et al., 2020; Nie et al., 2021). It is scientific and reasonable
to evaluate the indoor thermal environment of naturally ventilated buildings (Li et al., 2014). Its calculation formula is
expressed as follows:

APMV = PMV/(1 + λ∗ PMV) (1)

where, λ is the adaptive coefficient, which is related to the building thermal partition and the building performance. The
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) value is obtained by thermal environment simulation.
In Table 2, the grade of thermal and humid environment is divided into I, II and III, which are called ‘‘satisfactory’’,
‘‘basically satisfactory’’ and ‘‘unsatisfactory’’ respectively. Among them, grade II and above thermal environment are
considered acceptable, while grade III thermal environment is considered unacceptable. The year is divided into spring
(March–May), summer (June–August), autumn (September–November), and winter (December, January–February). Spring
and autumn are collectively called ‘‘transition seasons’’.
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Table 2
Thermal and humid environment assessment grade for non-artificial cold and heat sources.
Table data source: Literature (GB/T, 2012).
Grade Evaluation index
I −0.5 ≤ APMV ≤ 0.5
II −1 ≤ APMV < −0.5 or 0.5 < APMV ≤ 1
III APMV < −1 or APMV > 1

Table 3
Solar radiation and air temperature data for time zones A and B.
Environmental parameters Time zone Max Min Average Fluctuation range

2 A 308 0 59 308
Solar radiation (W/m )
B 619 0 208 619

A 16.6 7.1 11.5 9.4

Outdoor
◦ B 27.9 7.3 15.5 20.6
Air temperature ( C)
A 13.6 10.2 12.1 3.4
Indoor
B 16.5 10.6 12.8 5.9

2.4. Simulation

The dwelling is a naturally ventilated building without Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, and
the construction area is less than 200 m2 . The accuracy of DesignBuilder software can meet the requirements of this
paper, therefore, the software is selected to obtain PMV data and envelope related data required for thermal environment
evaluation, and to simulate the retrofitting and optimization design plan of thermal environment later. Wuzhou City
is close to Hezhou City, so the data file of a typical meteorological year in Wuzhou City was chosen as the ‘‘Weather
Data’’, and the weather data used for model reliability verification were collected in the field during the test period. The
‘‘HVAC’’ selection was turned off and the ‘‘Natural Ventilation’’ mode is turned on at the same time. The building operation
‘‘Schedule’’ was set according to the actual usage time of the residential house, reflecting its actual operation mechanism
as much as possible. The information collected was used to build the model, and the appearance of the model is shown
in Fig. 2a.

3. Results and discussions

3.1. Model validation

The indoor temperature sequences of the model building are closer to that of the actual building, the heat transfer
conditions of the model building can better reflect the real situation (Yang et al., 2018). In this study, indoor air
temperature was chosen as the index to measure the quality of model building. In order to ensure the reliability of the
model, the surface temperature of the envelope was selected as an auxiliary measurement index. The output of simulation
results is shown in the Fig. S2. In Fig. 3, the simulated and measured errors of air temperature and surface temperature
of grey brick, window and wood are 2.6%, 1.4%, 2.4% and 4.8%, respectively. All error values are less than 15%, indicating
that the model is reliable.

3.2. Analysis of measured results

3.2.1. Air temperature, humidity and wind speed

Fig. 4 demonstrates the measurement results. To analyze the influence of solar radiation on indoor and outdoor air
temperature and humidity, the test time was divided into A and B time zones. Time zone A was 18:00 on 27th to 24:00
on 28th, and the other time zone was 0:00 on 29th to the end of the test, which was recorded as time zone B. As shown in
Fig. 4a and b, the stronger the solar radiation, the greater the impact on indoor and outdoor air temperature fluctuations.
The specific test data in Table 3 reveals that indoor air temperature fluctuation is smaller than outdoor in both time zones
A and B. Because the indoor air temperature is protected by the envelope, the outdoor temperature fluctuations are more
drastic. In addition, indoor air temperature is lower than outdoor air temperature during daytime and the opposite at
night. It is indicated that the grey brick wall and stone wall of residential house play a role in indoor thermal insulation.
Moreover, the attenuation and delay of indoor air temperature in time zone B are more obvious than that in time zone
A, indicating that solar radiation intensity has an impact on it.
As shown in Fig. 4b and c, the relationship between solar radiation and relative humidity is inversely proportional.
When the solar radiation increases, relative humidity decreases, especially outdoors. Due to the absence of sunlight at
night, outdoor relative humidity rises sharply, while indoor relative humidity fluctuates in the range of 3.5%–15%. This
means that the moisture isolation performance of residential walls is good. The indoor humidity keeps increasing at night.
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Fig. 3. Simulated vs measured temperature of (a) air (b) grey brick (c) window (d) board.

Fig. 4. (a) Air temperature (b) Solar radiation (c) Humidity.

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W. Zheng, F. Wei, S. Su et al. Environmental Technology & Innovation 28 (2022) 102884

Table 4
Indoor and outdoor relative humidity data.
Environmental parameters Max Min Average Fluctuation range
Outdoor 98.2 39.4 72.6 58.8
Relative humidity (%)
Indoor 79.2 54.7 69.4 24.5

Fig. 5. Envelope surface temperature on (a) December 28 (b) December 29.

This is because the window holes on the west facade are simply closed with plastic film, and the front and back doors
of residential house are closed at night, which leads to the reduction of indoor ventilation and water vapor is ‘‘easy to
enter and difficult to exit’’. According to Table 4, the outdoor relative humidity is 39.4%–98.2%, with an average of 72.6%,
indicating high humidity. Yingjia Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a large area of vegetation and
Siyuan river in the south. Plant transpiration and water evaporation lead to high ambient humidity. The average indoor
relative humidity is 69.4%, and the fluctuation range is 24.5%. Compared with outdoor parameters, indoor wet environment
is more stable.
During the test, the wind direction of the Yingjia Village was mainly southeast, and the average outdoor wind speed was
1.07 m/s. Although there are many window holes in the facade of the dwelling, it is located in the middle of the ancient
street and the wind reached here has been reduced. In addition, the southeast direction of the dwelling is surrounded
by taller new buildings, forming a wind barrier. The dwelling belongs to natural ventilation building, indoor air speed is
much lower than outdoor. The maximum indoor wind speed is only 0.182 m/s, and the average wind speed is 0.083 m/s.

3.2.2. Surface temperature of the envelope

Fig. 5 shows the surface temperature of each envelope structure. When the outdoor solar radiation is low, except the
floor, the surface temperature of other envelope structures is basically the same. As solar radiation increases, the difference
in surface temperature becomes more pronounced. During the test, the weak solar radiation in the morning led to the
trough value of the surface temperature of the residential envelope between 8 and 9 a.m. After absorbing solar radiation
heat for a whole day, the surface temperature of the envelope reached its peak between 3 and 5 p.m. The exterior wall
not only radiates heat to the interior but also to the exterior at night, which causes the exterior wall temperature to be
slightly lower than the interior wall in the morning.
According to the data listed in Table 5, the average surface temperature of the envelope on December 29 was higher
and fluctuated more violently, which was related to the intensity of solar radiation. During the test, the order of average
surface temperatures of the six enclosures was roof (13.5 ◦ C) > floor (12.4 ◦ C) > west external wall (12.1 ◦ C) > east
external wall (11.9 ◦ C) > south internal wall (11.7 ◦ C) > north internal wall (11.6 ◦ C). The temperature on the east
external wall is slightly lower than that on the west. This is due to the fact that the overhanging space above the east
facade and the taller building on the east provide a shield to the wall, reducing the time of direct sunlight. The adjacent
buildings on the north and south sides of the dwelling are different. Among them, the south side is a newly built brick
and concrete building, while the north side is a residential house of the same type as the tested dwelling with patio space.
This is equivalent to using ‘‘thermal insulation layer’’ with different thermal performance for the north and south walls
of the dwelling tested. The surface temperature of the south internal wall is higher than that of the north internal wall
because of the strong thermal insulation performance of the south brick and concrete building. The 16 pieces of lighting
glass on the roof allow sunlight to directly hit the floor, making the floor temperature rise with the increase of solar
radiation, the heat storage performance of the floor is better than that of other surfaces, so its temperature change is
the most stable. Roof as the envelope surface receiving the largest solar radiation area, the solar radiation heat gain is
the largest. The average roof temperature is the highest. In addition, the roof structure is simple, without any thermal
insulation measures, resulting in drastic fluctuations in roof temperature.
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Table 5
Mean surface temperature of envelope structure.
Test time Average wall temperature (◦ C)
East external West external South internal North internal Floor Roof
28th December 11.0 11.2 11.0 10.9 11.9 11.9
29th December 12.8 13.0 12.4 12.3 12.9 15.0
Mean 11.9 12.1 11.7 11.6 12.4 13.5

Fig. 6. Heat transfer from the envelope (a) Spring (b) Summer (c) Autumn (d) Winter.

3.3. Analysis of simulation results

Improving the heat transfer characteristics of the envelope can effectively improve the overall thermal performance
and indoor thermal environment quality of the building (Nunes et al., 2020; Khabaz, 2018; Mokhtari et al., 2017; Li et al.,
2021; Stéphan et al., 2014). In this paper, the heat transfer data of the envelope obtained by simulation will be analyzed
to identify the parts with the largest contribution to heat transfer, in order to determine the key to the optimization and
transformation of the envelope.
The average daily heat transfer of the simulated residential envelope in each season is shown in Fig. 6. Throughout
the year, the average daily heat transfer of roof and grey brick walls were higher than that of stone walls, wooden walls
and windows. As the area with the largest surface area of the envelope structure of residential house, the roof receives
the longest time of direct sunlight. Moreover, the roof material is single layer grey tile without any heat preservation and
insulation measures, therefore, the heat transfer throughout the year is the highest. In addition, the average daily heat
transfer of roof in summer and winter is 249.09 W and −73.57 W. This indicates that the room gain heat in summer
and lose heat in winter through the roof. It has negative effects on the indoor thermal environment of the corresponding
season, which further confirms the poor insulation performance of the roof.
The contribution to heat transfer of the grey brick west exterior wall is second only to that of the roof. It is the only
exterior surface of all envelope surfaces that gets heat throughout the year. The heat gain of the wall depends on the
intensity of solar radiation. In summer and autumn, the solar radiation is 388.3 W/m2 and 396.3 W/m2 respectively, and
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W. Zheng, F. Wei, S. Su et al. Environmental Technology & Innovation 28 (2022) 102884

Fig. 7. Percentage of thermal environment grade.

only 274.3 W/m2 in spring. Spring in Hezhou is cloudy or foggy, which weakens the influence of solar radiation on the
wall. Therefore, the heat transfer in spring is very poor. The winter heat of grey brick wall is the lowest, only 30.8 W.
Grey brick walls have strong heat storage capacity. In the case of direct sunlight, the heat stored can offset the heat loss
through the wall in winter, and thus maintain the heat of the wall. The stone east wall is also for this reason. However,
the eastern exterior wall is sheltered by a large number of buildings, resulting in low daily heat gain of the wall.
The new building on the east side of the dwelling forms better shading for the street, and good ventilation makes
the street air temperature lower than the indoor air temperature in summer and autumn. Therefore, the interior heat
will dissipate through the east envelope structure. Therefore, the stone wall, board wall and east window in summer and
autumn in a state of heat loss. The window glass of residential house is single-layer glass, which has the smallest area,
but the heat transfer is always higher than the board wall. The reason is that the heat transfer coefficient of window glass
is the largest, 5.894 W/(m2 K), and the low heat storage capacity. Therefore, the room through the window glass heat
transfer is large. Comparing the heat transfer between stone wall and board wall, the heat transfer law is consistent in
other seasons except spring. This heat transfer law is: summer and autumn season loss heat, winter gain heat. Therefore,
under reasonable shading conditions, stone wall and wood wall can have a positive effect on the thermal environment of
residential house, and can be improved in this area.

3.4. Indoor thermal environment evaluation analysis

In Fig. 7, the annual indoor thermal environment grade of brick–timber vernacular dwelling can be observed. From the
perspective of the whole year, the annual proportion of thermal environment of residential house in grade I was 21.1% (77
days), grade II was 35.1% (128 days) and grade III was 43.8% (160 days). There were 205 days that people were satisfied
with indoor thermal environment in a year, accounting for 56.2% of the whole year. However, in the remaining nearly
half of the time, the indoor thermal environment cannot meet the needs of the staff in the room, and the overall thermal
environment level is low.
According to the seasonal analysis, the thermal environment level of residential house is basically satisfactory in most
time of summer. The number of days in summer with unsatisfactory grade III thermal environment only accounted
for 13.8% of the whole year. It demonstrates that the design of enclosure structure and good ventilation are beneficial
to indoor thermal environment in summer. Spring and autumn are collectively called ‘‘transition seasons’’. The indoor
thermal environment of dwelling in autumn is better than that in spring. The proportions of grade I and grade II thermal
environment were 32.5% and 40.6% respectively, which were higher than those in spring. In addition, compared with
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Table 6
Thermal parameters and structural forms of roof materials.
Roof material Thermal conductivity W/(m K) Heat storage coefficient W/(m2 K) Thickness (mm)
Grey tile 0.43 – 20
Asphalt felt 0.17 3.33 2
Rock wool board 0.041 0.76 30
Plywood 0.17 4.57 20

Table 7
Thermal parameters and structural forms of wall materials.
Wall material Thermal conductivity W/(m K) Heat storage coefficient W/(m2 K) Thickness (mm)
1-Fir 0.14 3.85 20
Upper 2-Sawdust 0.093 1.84 30
3-Fir 0.14 3.85 20

1-Granite finishes 3.49 25.49 30

Lower 2-Shale sintered porous brick 0.45 6.6 240
3-Mixed mortar 0.87 10.6 20

other seasons, the level of thermal environment in about three quarters of autumn is above grade II. This indicates that
the indoor thermal environment of dwelling in autumn is the best of the year. In spring, the proportion of grade III
thermal environment is the second, and the indoor thermal environment is poor. March and April in spring is a typical
period of ‘‘Continuous Wet Weather’’ in Guangxi. The weather is cloudy and sunny, and the room is very humid, which
seriously affects the human body’s wet feeling. In spring, grade III thermal environment time mostly occurs at this time.
During this period, the average indoor relative humidity exceeds 85% or even exceeds 90%. Therefore, dehumidification
and moistureproof are important links to ensure indoor thermal environment quality in spring.
Fig. 7c shows that winter is the season with the worst indoor thermal environment quality of residential house. Among
them, the proportion of grade III thermal environment in winter is as high as 51.9%, accounting for 92.2% of winter time.
The number of days that the thermal environment grade I is zero. Beyond that, 5.5% of grade II thermal environment is in
winter, that is, only 7 days in winter are in the basic satisfactory range, accounting for only 7.8% of the winter time. The
analysis reveals that the coldest time in winter occurs from mid-January to mid-February. During this period, the average
indoor air temperature is 9.3 ◦ C, while the relative humidity is as high as 86.1%, and the characteristics of wet and cold
are significant. Although the grey brick wall and stone wall of vernacular dwelling have high heat storage capacity and
thermal insulation capacity, because of the surrounding tall buildings, the time of receiving direct sunlight in winter is
shortened, and the indoor temperature does not rise much. During the day, the roof uses solar heat to heat the air inside.
However, due to the high height of residential house, the heat can only raise the air temperature in the upper room,
but has little effect on the lower rooms. At night, the roof, as the area with the weakest insulation, becomes the part
with the greatest heat loss of residential house. Moreover, the window holes on the east and west facades of residential
house strengthen the cold air invasion in winter, which reduces the indoor temperature and increases the humidity, and
intensifies the damp and cold feeling of the indoor environment.

3.5. Indoor thermal environment creation

3.5.1. Envelope optimization program

According to the above analysis, it can be seen that the simple structure form and single material of envelope structure
are the main reasons leading to the poor indoor thermal environment of residential house. Therefore, this paper will
focus on the material selection and structural form of the envelope. Adhering to the principles of adaptability, suitability
and inheritance, the reconstruction design scheme is formulated according to the local architectural characteristics of
residential houses.
Roof as the largest envelope surface, its thermal performance has an important impact on the indoor thermal
environment. In this paper, the roof of the dwelling is pitched roof, and the wooden frame is directly hung with tiles,
without any thermal insulation layer. In the roof optimization retrofitting scheme, the upper layer of the roof is retained
with 2 mm asphalt felt as the waterproof layer of the roof, 30 mm rock wool board is selected for the heat insulation
layer, and 20 mm plywood is selected for the lower layer. Thermal parameters and structural forms of roof materials are
listed in Table 6.
The features of brick–timber residential dwelling included the facade of the upper layer of the wooden wall and the
lower layer of masonry structure. The original upper wall of the tested dwelling is single-layer fir structure, which has
poor thermal insulation performance. Hezhou is rich in mineral resources, granite finishes and marble finishes. Therefore,
granite finishes, porous bricks and mixed mortar were used for retrofitting the wall. The retrofitting upper wall was
constructed double-layered cedar wood with sawdust insulation, with a dislocation connection between the boards to
improve air tightness. Thermal parameters and structural forms of wall materials were listed in Table 7.
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Fig. 8. Thermal environment grade before and after retrofitting (a) Annual (b) Seasonal.

The original window holes in the tested dwelling are beneficial to indoor ventilation, but have a negative effect on
building air tightness and indoor insulation in winter. Ordinary double-layer insulating glass windows were used in the
retrofitting, with air layer thickness of 6 mm and heat transfer coefficient of 3.0 W/(m2 K). At the same time, glass windows
were added to seal the window openings. In order not to damage the appearance of the building facade, wood window
frames are used in the attic of residential house, and aluminum window frames are used in the lower activity space.

3.5.2. Optimized thermal environment

Fig. 8a shows the annual thermal environment grade of residential house before and after retrofitting. All grades of
thermal environment of residential house changed after retrofitting. Specifically, the annual time proportion of thermal
environment was 25.8% for grade I, 34.8% for grade II and 39.5% for grade III, which were 4.7%, −0.3% and −4.3% different
from that before retrofitting. It means that the changed grade III thermal environment days can reach grade I thermal
environment level after the retrofitting. This reveals that the retrofitting scheme of envelope structure is more favorable
to the overall thermal environment of vernacular dwelling.
Fig. 8b shows the grade of thermal environment of residential house in different seasons before and after retrofitting.
After the retrofitting, the residential house spent 29 days in grade I thermal environment in summer, which accounted
for 31.5% of the summer time, and decreased by 5.5% compared with before the retrofitting. The time spent in grade II
thermal environment was 49 days, an increase of 14.2%. Grade III thermal environment time decreased by 8.7%. Although
the number of days at grade I in summer decreased slightly, the number of days above the basic satisfaction level increased
by 5% compared with before retrofitting. It reveals that the retrofitting scheme plays a positive role in improving the
thermal environment in summer. The improvement of residential thermal environment quality was most significant in
transition seasons. The thermal environment time of grade I increased by 13% only in autumn, while that of grade II and
grade III decreased by 4% and 7% respectively.
After the retrofitting, the thermal environment of residential house in winter still did not reach grade I at any time, and
the thermal environment time of grade III increased by 5.5%. The thermal environment deteriorated further. This indicates
that the improvement of thermal insulation performance of the envelope can improve the indoor thermal environment
of residential house in summer, but has a negative effect on the thermal environment in winter. The main reason is
that the retrofit improves the insulation performance of the envelope, but it also reduces the heat obtained through
the envelope, resulting in poor thermal environment in winter. Even so, the average indoor air temperature of dwelling
after retrofitting is still 3.4 ◦ C higher than that before retrofitting. The results demonstrate that the increase of thermal
insulation performance of the envelope can reduce the external disturbance heat, but the improved thermal insulation
performance can also reduce the loss of the main internal disturbance heat generation in residential house. In addition,
as residential house belong to public entertainment places, doors and windows are used to open to the outside for a long
time, which further increases the invasion of cold wind. Therefore, the improvement of thermal environment of natural
ventilation buildings is not only related to the thermal performance of the building itself, but also closely related to the
behavior and activities of the occupants.

4. Conclusions

Local climate, geographical environment, thermal performance of enclosure structure and living behavior will affect the
indoor thermal environment of residential houses. The fluctuation values of indoor and outdoor air temperature in winter
were 6.4 ◦ C and 20.8 ◦ C respectively, indicating that the indoor temperature was stable. The average relative humidity of
residential house is about 70%. The poor moisture isolation of the envelope structure and poor ventilation habits lead to
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the continuous high indoor humidity. The mountain is a natural wind shield, and the entrance of streets and lanes avoids
the prevailing wind direction in winter. These results lead to that the indoor air flow rate is low in winter.
The annual time proportion of thermal environment of each grade is 21.1%, 35.1% and 43.8%, respectively. Hezhou city
belongs to subtropical humid climate and is warm and humid in winter. However, the simulated data reveals that the
indoor damp and cold feeling is serious in winter. The reasons for the poor thermal environment of residential house
are summarized as follows: First, the taller buildings around the residential house form a good shading system, which
affects the heat gain of the sun in winter. Second, the residential facade has many window openings but poor airtightness.
Third, the envelope material and structure are single, heat storage performance and insulation performance is low. Finally,
the dwelling without any moisture-proof and moisture isolation measures, indoor humidity is high. In this paper, the
optimization of the roof and the exterior walls adds insulation and moisture resistance, while closing the windows. The
thermal environment time of grade I was increased by 4.7% and the grade III was decreased by 4.3%. The quality of thermal
environment has been improved, but the effect was not obvious.
The envelope of naturally ventilated buildings in humid subtropical climate should not blindly improve the thermal
insulation performance, but should consider the thermal performance of the envelope, shading measures and air tightness
of the building together. In addition, moisture dehumidification measures should also be done to avoid the problem that
a series of harm health such as mildew and produce disease. This conclusion provides a further reference for the design
and optimization of low-energy vernacular dwellings in subtropical humid climate.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Wenheng Zheng: Funding acquisition, Project administration. Fangfang Wei: Writing – original draft. Shaoying Su:
Data curation, Methodology, Software. Jianjun Cai: Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing.
Junxiao Wei: Writing – review & editing. Rong Hu: Writing – review & editing.

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.

Data availability

No data was used for the research described in the article.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province, China
[2021GXNSFAA220080, 2020JJB160052, and GuikeAD20297010] and the Scientific Research and Technology Development
Plan of Guilin, China [20180107-2, 20210218-3].

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2022.102884.

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