A novel on-top inverse sunspace conception and the passive heating effects on a typical northern China rural house

Building energy of rural areas accounts for a non-negligible proportion in total building energy consumption. Taking rural areas in Xingtai, a city in northern China, as an example, a novel on-top inverse sunspace, is different from traditional attached sunspace, is presented to improve indoor thermal environment in winter. This design could become an effective method of energy saving in rural buildings. We built the model and researched the influence of on-top inverse sunspace on the energy demand and indoor temperature for the building by EnergyPlus software. Meanwhile, we also studied the effect of these factors which include transmittance and angle of on-top inverse sunspace, window to wall ratio and wall radiation heating system. The simulation results showed that the optimal transmittance of on-top inverse sunspace could reduce energy up to 964 kWh and the best angle of on-top inverse sunspace could save 400 kWh energy. Further, energy consumption was the smallest when window to wall ratio is 0.5. Wall radiation heating system increased indoor temperature by 1.2°C. In addition, a reference for rural housing design can be provided based on the results of our simulation.