Qingsong Ma

1. Energy issues are severe challenges and major needs facing the world. Building energy consumption is an important part of end-use energy consumption, accounting for 20–40% of total social energy...

Given that building energy consumption accounts for a significant portion of total energy consumption, passive building technologies have demonstrated tremendous potential in addressing energy crises and the greenhouse effect. As a passive building technology, the Trombe wall (TW) can utilize solar energy to enhance building energy efficiency. However, due to their reliance on direct solar radiation patterns and limited thermal inertia characteristics, traditional TW systems exhibit inherent efficiency limitations. By integrating phase change materials (PCMs), TW systems can achieve high thermal storage performance and temperature control flexibility within a narrow temperature gradient range. By integrating functional materials, PCM-TW systems can be made multifunctional (e.g., through thermal catalysts for air purification). This has significant engineering implications. Therefore, this paper systematically reviews the development timeline of TWs, focusing on the evolution of PCM-TW technology and its performance. Based on this, the paper particularly emphasizes the roles of three key operational parameters: structural characteristics, thermophysical material design, and operational management. Importantly, through comparative analysis of existing systems, this paper identifies the shortcomings of current PCM-TW systems and proposes future improvement directions based on the review results.

The article presents an innovative design schema for air circulation within collective housing, which effectively reduces energy consumption and improves the indoor environment. It also solves the problem of the high operating and maintenance costs caused by the simultaneous installation of air conditioners and radiators. Employing dynamic energy consumption calculation software THERB for HAM, the energy-saving benefits of this design are simulated. The strategy involves capturing heat within the sunspace and transferring it to the conditioning chamber, from where the air is tempered and circulated throughout the habitable spaces to minimize heating. The findings suggest that by strategically using sunspace heat, heating energy can be significantly reduced by 43%. It helps to promote the development of sustainable building design. A comparative analysis of window materials in the sunspace, including single glazing, double glazing, and low-e double glazing, indicates that windows with enhanced insulation properties can substantially decrease the heating energy. Considering both energy efficiency and economic feasibility, low-e double glazing is identified as a particularly advantageous choice.

An innovative center-mounted louver ventilation window suitable for seasonal ventilation strategies was proposed, combining the regional climate of Qingdao. The sustainable development concept is embodied, which can not only reduce building energy consumption but also consider the quality of daylighting. This research constructed a comprehensive evaluation framework, taking an office building in Qingdao as an example. The framework utilized the parametric design platform Grasshopper and its environmental design plug-in Ladybugtools. It considered the daylighting performance and energy consumption of the building. This study included six different ventilation strategies, with energy use intensity and useful daylight illuminance as evaluation indicators. The results indicated that the seasonal ventilation strategies and parameters of blinds were optimized to significantly improve the energy efficiency of the building without compromising daylighting quality. The optimized solution reduces energy consumption from 83.81 kWh/m² to 55.0 kWh/m², achieving a 34.4% reduction while maintaining a high UDI. This energy-saving effect reveals the influence of different ventilation strategies on energy and daylighting. And it provides an important reference for sustainable design in similar climate contexts.

The growing concerns over climate change and energy scarcity have highlighted the need for building energy conservation. Windcatchers, renowned for their effective ventilation capabilities, have emerged as a pivotal solution for saving energy and improving indoor thermal comfort. Serving as rooftop installations, windcatchers harness high-altitude airflow to provide fresh indoor air while expelling stale air. This comprehensive review encompasses over 96 studies published between 2000 and 2024, examining the performance of various types of windcatchers. The review reviews previous articles and concludes that using different types of wind catchers in hot and arid areas can increase indoor air velocity by about 10–50%, reduce building energy consumption by about 20–50%, and increase thermal comfort duration by about 25–50%. The article combines the perspectives of multiple disciplines such as architecture, environmental engineering, and sustainable design, providing a new perspective for the study of windcatchers. The article not only summarizes the design and performance of existing wind catchers, but also provides 13 suggestions for the design of wind capture towers, while also identifying areas for future research, such as combining wind capture machines with other passive cooling technologies and evaluating their performance under different climate and urban conditions.