Investigation on the Influence of Rural Residents' Behavior Regulation on Gas-Fired Combi-Boiler Heating in Northern China

Abstract There is basically no research on the impact of rural residents' behavior on heating when using gas-fired heating and hot water combi-boilers as a heat source. Two residential buildings in rural areas of Handan were selected for the study, indoor and outdoor temperatures and gas consumption were tested, and a survey of residents' behavior was conducted. The results show that the ratio of actual heat inputs to rated heat input in two buildings is 47–76% and 25–91%, indicating that the reason for the indoor temperature being lower than design temperature is not the insufficient heating capacity of the heating system, but rather the result of residents actively adjusting the combi-boilers. Resident behavior adjustment has a significant impact on the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor and gas consumption for heating. Compared to the automatic adjustment behavior mode, the maximum deviation of the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor under artificial adjustment behavior during period 1 is 59%, with an average deviation of 44%. However, the average gas consumption is reduced by 9.2%. The study reflects that rural residents actively adjust the gas-fired combi-boilers to significantly reduce the gas cost of building heating while meeting their own thermal comfort requirements.