Influence of geographical location and outdoor meteorological parameters on indoor humidity environment in rural residential buildings during the Plum Rains Season in the hot summer and cold winter region

PLoS One. 2023 Oct 23;18(10):e0293181. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293181. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Plum Rains Season (PRS) has the typical characteristics of outdoor air temperature dramatic changes and high air humidity in the hot summer and cold winter region in China. When the outdoor temperature rises rapidly during PRS, the building envelope surface temperature is probably lower than the indoor air dew point temperature, resulting in moisture condensation. This paper evaluates the influence of geographical location and outdoor meteorological parameters on the indoor humidity environment. The effects of critical parameters such as altitude, average temperature, relative humidity, total precipitation, total precipitation days, atmospheric pressure, and wind speed on the building envelope moisture condensation in nine typical cities in the hot summer and cold winter region were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the Condensation Frequency (CFn) in the western, central, and eastern regions reached the highest in April, May, and June, respectively. Among the nine typical cities, Changsha has the highest Condensation Risk (CR). In addition, the altitude, total precipitation, and atmospheric pressure have little effect on the indoor humidity environment, and it is not directly related to CR; The average temperature and total precipitation days were not related to CR in the western and eastern regions and positively correlated with CR in the central region; The wind speed was positively correlated with CR in the western and central regions and negatively correlated in the eastern region; The relative humidity can affect the indoor humidity environment and moisture condensation on the inner surface of walls, when the relative humidity increases, the CR increases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants* / analysis
  • China
  • Humidity
  • Prunus domestica*
  • Rain
  • Seasons
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Air Pollutants

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department [19A001]; Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province [2020JJ5597]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [51806021]; State Key Laboratory of Air-conditioning Equipment and System Energy Conservation [ACSKL2018KT18]; and Double-First class International Collaboration Fund of Changsha University of Science and Technology [2018IC16].