Study on the Influence of the Energy Intensity of Residential District Layout on Neighborhood Buildings

Numerous prior studies have substantiated the influence of residential layout on building energy consumption; however, their principal emphasis has predominantly been on urban and neighborhood contexts. Nevertheless, research conducted at the cluster scale has the potential to augment the well-being of neighboring communities and render the objective of a reduction in energy consumption more pertinent to residents' daily lives. Furthermore, there is a shortage of more robust metrics capable of quantifying the degree of mutual shading among individual buildings within residential neighborhoods. This shading factor constitutes a pivotal element impacting the energy consumption of individual structures. This study utilizes the VirVil-HTB2 tool to calculate solar radiation intensity for individual buildings, serving as a shading metric. Correlation and linear regression analyses are employed to quantify the causal relationship, allowing us to investigate the impact of residential complex layouts on the energy efficiency of individual buildings. The findings of this study indicate that solar radiation serves as a precise metric for gauging shading intensity among buildings, and building energy consumption exhibits a distinct block-like distribution pattern within the residential complex. Furthermore, through an analysis of the level of inter-building shading and a judicious optimization of the layout, it is feasible to achieve a reduction of up to 4.03% in heating energy consumption and a maximum reduction of 4.39% in cooling energy consumption.