Traditional settlements have received increasing attention because of China’s rural revitalization. Traditional settlements with excellent thermal comfort in rural areas can attract urban residents, so it is vital to explore the thermal comfort of traditional settlements. For this paper, we studied Linpan settlements, which are scattered traditional settlements that are mainly composed of buildings and trees. Firstly, we visually interpreted Linpan settlements by ArcGIS. A total of 1194 Linpan settlements were classified to obtain the spatial components. The statistical results of Linpan were used in the subsequent experimental design. Then ENVI-met was used to simulate 25 different spatial forms of Linpan obtained by statistical results and orthogonal experiment to explore the most comfortable Linpan layout. The results showed the following: (1) Linpan could improve thermal comfort in both winter and summer. Adjusting the spatial arrangement could maximally increase the mean physiological equivalent temperature (PET) of the whole Linpan area by 1.03 °C in winter and reduce it by 3.02 °C in the summer. (2) At different time points, the influence of different space factors on thermal comfort was also different. The overall significance of each factor on thermal comfort was addressed as follows: vegetation coverage (highly significant) > building number (highly significant) > building form (highly significant) > vegetation distribution (significant), but the building distribution was not significant. (3) The best spatial arrangement scheme was high vegetation coverage, a large number of buildings, tri-courtyard buildings, surrounding vegetation distribution, and surrounding building distribution. The innovation of this paper lies in introduced thermal comfort into the traditional Linpan settlement, extracted spatial features of buildings and vegetation by visual interpretation combined with GIS software, and the fact that we conducted the experimental design of microclimate and thermal comfort based on spatial features. The research results can guide the outdoor thermal environment renewal design of Linpan and other traditional settlements.

During intermittent heating, the heat storage and release of building envelopes are caused by indoor thermal environment variations. The heat storage and release process of the building envelope inside can be used to reduce heat loss in intermittent cycles and maintain the indoor thermal environment for occupant comfort while saving energy by efficiency in the operation. In this research, the building envelope was integrated with phase change materials, and the heat transfer model was established and verified to analyze the heat storage and release processes of composite phase change wall (composite-PCW) under two typical intermittent heating conditions. Effective heat storage utilization rate η and heat loss rate ε were used to evaluate the wall’s heat storage and release characteristics and energy efficiency, and the composite-PCW was compared with a solid brick wall. The results show that (1) the η of the composite-PCW was 75.07% in the long intermittent condition; (2) the thermal processes were relatively stable in the last three cycles of the short intermittent condition, and the η was greater than 70%; and (3) the ε of the composite-PCW was smaller under the two intermittent conditions compared with the solid brick wall and was reduced by more than 36%.

In the Yangtze River zone of China, the heating operation in buildings is mainly part-time and part-space, which could affect the indoor thermal comfort while making the thermal process of building envelope different. This paper proposed to integrate phase change material (PCM) to building walls to increase the indoor thermal comfort and attenuate the temperature fluctuations during intermittent heating. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of this kind of composite phase change wall (composite-PCW) on the indoor thermal environment and energy consumption of intermittent heating, and further develop an optimization strategy of intermittent heating operation by using EnergyPlus simulation. Results show that the indoor air temperature of the building with the composite-PCW was 2–3°C higher than the building with the reference wall (normal foamed concrete wall) during the heating-off process. Moreover, the indoor air temperature was higher than 18°C and the mean radiation temperature was above 20°C in the first 1 h after stopping heating. Under the optimized operation condition of turning off the heating device 1 h in advance, the heat release process of the composite-PCW to the indoor environment could maintain the indoor thermal environment within the comfortable range effectively. The composite-PCW could decrease 4.74% of the yearly heating energy consumption compared with the reference wall. The optimization described can provide useful information and guidance for the energy saving of intermittently heated buildings.

During intermittent heating, the heat storage in the building envelope and its release could have a coupling influence on the variation in the indoor environment. In this project, a simplified second-order lumped capacity system was developed to study the dynamic thermal process of indoor environment and in the building envelope during intermittent heating processes. An experimental model simulation was presented, and an onsite measurement in a residential building was carried out for the model validation. Based on the modelling simulation, the effects of the heating load and building envelope’s thermal capacity on the dynamic responses of the indoor thermal environment and heat storage of the building envelope were analysed. The results show that the heating energy consumption was reduced, while the indoor thermal comfort was not affected by the rational choice of the building envelope and heating load. This paper presents an optimization of the intermittent heating operation mode and the building envelope to maintain the indoor thermal environment for occupant comfort while saving energy by efficiency in the operation of the heat storage system. Our findings should provide guidance for practical building thermal design for energy efficiency of buildings.