Abstract
Central continuous heating is widely used in China. Due to the large heating area, the indoor temperatures of the buildings with the same heat source are quite different, which affects comfort and wastes energy. This paper proposes a subsection intermittent heating method, that is, an intermittent heating method is used for overheated buildings. During the period, when the overheated buildings stop heating, the hot water originally supplied to the overheated buildings is supplied to the underheated buildings. We investigated the indoor temperatures of some actual buildings in Daqing city. Accordingly, a comfortable indoor temperature range was determined. The indoor temperature and heating energy consumption of overheated and underheated buildings with zoned intermittent heating were simulated using EnergyPlus. The results show that the interval time has important effects on the indoor temperature and energy consumption of overheated buildings. The most ideal partitioned intermittent heating regulation method is to stop heating (at 5 o’clock) for 3 h and then resume heating for 5 h. When the area ratios of overheated buildings and underheated buildings are 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1, the average indoor temperatures of underheated buildings can be increased from 16 °C to 17.65 °C, 19.05 °C, and 21.02 °C, respectively. The hot water temperature and insulation thickness have significant effects on the indoor temperature of underheated buildings.