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Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction
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Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 7332

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiaoping Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013, China
Interests: building energy saving; indoor built environment; renewable energy utilization; carbon emission reduction in building sector
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rong Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture and Transportation Engineering, Guilin University Of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Interests: building simulation; radiant cooling system; building energy conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Energy consumption and carbon emissions in the building sector have become the focus of global attention under the goal of curbing global warming. However, many factors, such as building materials, envelopes, electromechanical system, etc., have a certain impact on the energy consumption, as well as carbon emissions, involving every stage in a building’s life cycles. This makes the mitigation of energy use and its environmental impacts complex. Through the innovation of energy conservation and carbon emission reduction technology, the improvement of energy efficiency and low-carbon performance in buildings has become a crucial research area.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to explore the advanced theories, technologies, and tools in the field of building energy efficiency and low-carbon performance against the background of carbon neutrality. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

（1）Building energy conservation;

（2）The evaluation of building energy efficiency and low-carbon performance;

（3）The low-carbon technology of green buildings throughout a building’s life cycle;

（4）Renewable energy utilization;

（5）Bridging the low-carbon development of buildings and urban renewal;

（6）The low-carbon performance of historical buildings;

（7）Technology for zero-carbon building and its application.

Dr. Xiaoping Li
Dr. Rong Hu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy conservation
  • carbon emission
  • energy use efficiency
  • low carbon
  • carbon neutrality
  • renewable energy

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 7616 KiB  
Article
Research on Energy Consumption Performance of a New Passive Phase Change Thermal Storage Window
by Yong Cui, Cong Zeng, Hongbin Zhang, Hongyu Zhang and Yunli Li
Buildings 2025, 15(7), 1145; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071145 - 31 Mar 2025
Viewed by 278
Abstract
The new passive phase change thermal storage window integrates advanced energy-saving materials and technologies to provide efficient insulation and mechanical properties. It is suitable for green buildings. Through on-site experiments and simulations in summer, autumn, and winter in Jilin City, the cyclic use [...] Read more.
The new passive phase change thermal storage window integrates advanced energy-saving materials and technologies to provide efficient insulation and mechanical properties. It is suitable for green buildings. Through on-site experiments and simulations in summer, autumn, and winter in Jilin City, the cyclic use function of summer insulation and winter heating has been verified. This article establishes a numerical model and compares it with measured data to verify the accuracy of the model. In order to further verify the practicality of the new window, it was applied and tested at the Yichun substation in the cold winter region. The results showed that the new window can significantly reduce energy consumption while increasing indoor temperature. This article used a refined model established by Green Building Saville and Airpak3.0 software to deeply analyze the energy consumption and temperature field distribution of the window, and verified the reliability of numerical analysis in performance prediction. This study not only proves the effectiveness of the new phase change thermal storage window but also provides a new solution for the energy-saving design of green buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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18 pages, 1297 KiB  
Article
The Development Path and Carbon-Reduction Method of Low-Carbon Pilot Urban Areas in China
by Lining Zhou, Qingqin Wang, Haizhu Zhou, Yiqiang Jiang, Rongxin Yin and Tong Lu
Buildings 2025, 15(7), 1096; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071096 - 27 Mar 2025
Viewed by 286
Abstract
Urban carbon emissions account for 75% of the total social emissions and are a key area for achieving the country’s “dual carbon” goals. This study takes the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City as a case, constructs a multi-dimensional carbon emission accounting model, integrates six systems, [...] Read more.
Urban carbon emissions account for 75% of the total social emissions and are a key area for achieving the country’s “dual carbon” goals. This study takes the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City as a case, constructs a multi-dimensional carbon emission accounting model, integrates six systems, including buildings, transportation, water systems, solid waste, renewable energy, and carbon sinks, and proposes a comprehensive research method that takes into account both long-term prediction and a short-term dynamic analysis. The long-term emission trends under different scenarios are simulated through the KAYA model. It is found that under the enhanced low-carbon scenario, the Eco-City will reach its peak in 2043 (2.253 million tons of CO2) and drop to 2.182 million tons of CO2 in 2050. At the same time, after comparing models, such as random forest and support vector machine, the XGBoost algorithm is adopted for short-term prediction (R2 = 0.984, MAE = 0.195). The results show that it is significantly superior to traditional methods and can effectively capture the dynamic changes in fields, such as buildings and transportation. Based on the prediction results, the study proposes six types of collaborative emission-reduction paths: improving building energy efficiency (annual emission reduction of 93800 tons), promoting green travel (58,900 tons), increasing the utilization rate of non-conventional water resources (3700 tons), reducing per capita solid waste generation (14,400 tons), expanding the application of renewable energy (288,200 tons), and increasing green space carbon sinks (135,000 tons). The total annual emission-reduction potential amounts to 594,000 tons. This study provides a valuable reference for developing carbon reduction strategies in urban areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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17 pages, 2353 KiB  
Article
Multi-Objective Optimization of Buildings’ Exterior Wall Insulation Based on Comprehensive Analysis Models and Assessment Indexes
by Haitao Wang, Zhu He and Chengzhou Guo
Buildings 2025, 15(5), 781; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15050781 - 27 Feb 2025
Viewed by 422
Abstract
Employing thermal insulation in buildings’ exterior walls is an effective technical measure to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions of buildings. A multi-objective optimization method is presented for exterior wall insulation in buildings based on the equivalent full-load hours-based energy consumption (EFLHEC) prediction [...] Read more.
Employing thermal insulation in buildings’ exterior walls is an effective technical measure to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions of buildings. A multi-objective optimization method is presented for exterior wall insulation in buildings based on the equivalent full-load hours-based energy consumption (EFLHEC) prediction method, comprehensive analysis(economic, energy, and carbon emission) models, and assessment indexes. The presented optimization design method consists of an EFLHEC-based energy consumption prediction module, a comprehensive analysis model-based quantitative evaluation module, and a balanced index-based optimal design scheme determination module. Comprehensive analysis models are developed to evaluate economic performance, energy, and carbon emissions of external wall insulation. The balanced index method is extended to cope with economic, energy, and carbon emission factors of buildings’ external wall insulation. The research results showed that the EFLHEC provided an accurate and simple energy consumption prediction method for buildings’ exterior walls. The optimal design scheme was determined by comparing the values of balanced indexes for different design schemes of external wall insulation. Cooling and heating source type had important influences on the optimal insulation layer thicknesses, economic performance, and carbon emissions of external wall insulation in buildings. The largest variations in the balanced index for different types of insulation and different types of cooling and heating sources were 0.14 and 0.41, respectively. The cooling and heating source type should be considered in optimizing the design of external wall insulation in buildings. The best solution was obtained by EPS and natural gas for an office building in Zhengzhou city in China. The presented multi-objective optimization method is very helpful in solving the complex engineering problem of optimizing external wall insulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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23 pages, 4734 KiB  
Article
Energy-Saving Optimization of HVAC Systems Using an Ant Lion Optimizer with Enhancements
by Bin Hu, Yuhu Guo, Wenjun Huang, Jianxiang Jin, Mingxuan Zou and Zhikun Zhu
Buildings 2024, 14(9), 2842; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14092842 - 9 Sep 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1655
Abstract
The complex and time-varying external climate conditions and multi-equipment variable coupling characteristics make it challenging to optimize the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in existing buildings effectively. Additionally, the intricate energy exchange processes within HVAC systems present difficulties in developing accurate [...] Read more.
The complex and time-varying external climate conditions and multi-equipment variable coupling characteristics make it challenging to optimize the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in existing buildings effectively. Additionally, the intricate energy exchange processes within HVAC systems present difficulties in developing accurate and generalizable energy consumption models. In response to these challenges, this paper proposes an Ant Lion Optimizer with Enhancements (ALOE) that can dynamically adjust the number of populations and the movement trend to improve the convergence speed and optimization ability, and randomly adjust the movement amplitude to enhance the local optimal escape ability. Finally, a case study of an office building in Hangzhou was carried out, and an overall energy consumption model of the HVAC system based on parameter identification and a general mechanism model was established. In this model, the energy-saving optimization effects of various advanced swarm intelligence optimization algorithms were compared. The experimental results demonstrate that under high, medium, and low load conditions, the ALOE algorithm achieves energy-saving rates of 28.16%, 28.26%, and 24.85%, respectively, the overall energy-saving rate for the entire day reaches 29.06%, which indicates the ALOE has significant superiority. This work will contribute to the development of energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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12 pages, 3589 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction Potential of Different Star Green Science and Technology Museums in Cold Regions of China
by Yitong Li, Zhe Tian, Haizhu Zhou, Xiaoping Li and Xionglei Cheng
Buildings 2024, 14(9), 2621; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14092621 - 24 Aug 2024
Viewed by 904
Abstract
Low-carbon development in the field of buildings is an important means to achieve the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. In public buildings, the operation of science and technology museum buildings (TMB) has high carbon emissions, and the application of green building [...] Read more.
Low-carbon development in the field of buildings is an important means to achieve the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. In public buildings, the operation of science and technology museum buildings (TMB) has high carbon emissions, and the application of green building technology for energy saving and carbon reduction has great potential. In this paper, typical TMB in cold areas are selected and built, and energy consumption is simulated by Designbuilder. The calculation boundaries and carbon emission factors of carbon emissions are set according to current standards, and the carbon reduction potential of green science and technology museum buildings (GTMB) under different levels is compared. The results show that compared with the benchmark building based on GB 55015-2021, the carbon emission of the GTMB is significantly reduced, and the carbon emission reduction rates of silver, gold, and platinum TMB are 7.9%, 13.4%, and 29.6%, respectively. Based on the existing optimization design of passive measures such as natural ventilation and natural lighting, the GTMB should pay more attention to the realization of its optimal control strategy and automatic control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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28 pages, 3368 KiB  
Article
Study on Life-Cycle Carbon Footprints and an Uncertainty Analysis of Mega Sporting Events: An Analysis in China
by Hongyan Wang, Jibang Tian, Yanfeng Li, Yang Wang, Yao Lu, Jianye Zhang, Chentong Lei and Chong Li
Buildings 2024, 14(8), 2510; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14082510 - 14 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1681
Abstract
This study proposes a model for the quantitative evaluation of the life-cycle carbon footprints of large sporting events and the uncertainties related to them. The model was used to analyze the case of a mega sporting event in Beijing, China. First, the quantitative [...] Read more.
This study proposes a model for the quantitative evaluation of the life-cycle carbon footprints of large sporting events and the uncertainties related to them. The model was used to analyze the case of a mega sporting event in Beijing, China. First, the quantitative model for the evaluation of the carbon footprints of mega sporting events includes a preparation stage, a holding stage, and an end stage. These stages consider the energy and resources used for construction, operation, transportation, catering, and accommodation. Second, this study proposes a prediction model using model-based and simulation-based methods to address the difficulty of obtaining traffic activity. Third, a semi-quantitative method that combines a data quality indicator and stochastic simulation is adopted for the uncertainty analysis of mega sporting events. Finally, a case study is used to indicate that the preparation stage of a mega sporting event accounts for the highest CO2 emissions at 92.1%, followed by 7.5% in the holding stage and 0.4% in the end stage. The total life-cycle CO2 emissions of a sustainable scenario of a mega sporting event in Beijing amount to 205,080.3 t CO2e, and the per capita CO2 emissions during the event’s holding stage amount to 0.26 t CO2e/person. The uncertainty in the input parameters is 0.0617, indicating that the uncertainty of the model is low, and the reliability of the results is high. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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10 pages, 2175 KiB  
Article
Research on High-Quality Carbon Reduction Pathways for Green Buildings under the Dual Carbon Background
by Xing Wei, Zhi He, Yitong Li and Xiaoping Li
Buildings 2024, 14(7), 2082; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14072082 - 7 Jul 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1495
Abstract
Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategies bring both opportunities and challenges to the development of green buildings. In this context, the development of high-quality green buildings requires a focus on improving carbon reduction effects throughout their entire lifespan. Based on a systematic review [...] Read more.
Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategies bring both opportunities and challenges to the development of green buildings. In this context, the development of high-quality green buildings requires a focus on improving carbon reduction effects throughout their entire lifespan. Based on a systematic review of the achievements and existing problems in the development of green buildings in China over the past thirty years, this article benchmarks the new trends in green building standards in developed countries abroad, dissects the new requirements for the development of green buildings in China under the new situation, and proposes a high-quality carbon reduction pathways from four aspects: theoretical research, policy systems, technical systems, and software platforms. Finally, it proposes implementation suggestions for collaborative development from four dimensions: theoretical methods for calculating carbon emissions, green finance policies, a full-process carbon reduction technology system, and carbon emission accounting tools. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Building Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction)
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