Energy-Efficient Design for Care Home Buildings: A Case Study

With the increase of aging population in China, the need for a care home for the elderly is growing. Care home buildings consume higher HVAC energy due to high occupancy intensity and long hours of operation of the system. Low-energy design of care home buildings is pivotal to reducing carbon emissions and saving energy costs. However, there is a lack of research on the design of energy-efficient care homes integrating renewable energy use in China. Hence, this research aims to combine passive building design and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV). Energy consumption and solar power generation were simulated by IES VE and PVsyst, respectively. The method of optimal design strategies was proposed by using the IES VE software package considering detailed room functions, operation profiles, and schedule of windows’ open/close status. The annual heating, cooling, and total energy consumption were 40.3, 44.5, and 84.8 kWh/m2, respectively. The results show that care home energy consumption is much higher than the national green residential building energy benchmark. The potential use of solar energy by integrating the PV in the roof of the building was assessed using PVsyst. The performance ratio of the selected photovoltaic system is 78.4%. The results show that the installation of a BIPV on the roof can generate 28.4% of the total heating and cooling energy. This research demonstrates the potential for energy savings through the integrated approach of passive building design with the utilization of solar energy.