Case Study on Effect of Climate Factors on HVAC Energy Consumption in Residential Buildings

The environmental climate factors have significant impact on building equipment energy consumption, especially in regions with hot summers and cold winters, where building energy consumption patterns are substantially influenced by seasonal climate variations. This research analyzed the actual energy consumption data of a residential building’s HVAC system from July 2023 to February 2024. The Random Forest method was applied to analyze the influence of weather variables on HVAC system energy consumption. K-means clustering was used to categorize energy consumption patterns into high, medium and low and energy consumption characteristics in according to the weather variables in each pattern were analyzed. The results show that: (1) Temperature exerts the greatest influence on the energy consumption of building HVAC system, followed by solar radiation and humidity. (2) The distribution of three high- medium-low energy consumption modes shows significant seasonal characteristics, among which the moderate energy consumption mode is the main contributor to the total energy consumption of HVAC systems. (3) Building HVAC high energy consumption level is mainly driven by the weather conditions of high temperature and intense solar radiation in summer and low temperature with weak solar radiation in winter; Medium energy consumption is commonly seen during summer cooling and winter heating periods, when the HVAC system needs to be switched on but does not require high load operation; Low energy consumption normally corresponds to mild climatic conditions.