Energy efficient multi-story residential building is a common approach in China. Demonstration buildings are built in recent years for research purpose. Energy efficiency in such buildings is excellent. However, these demonstration buildings are much more like a collage of modern technology. For clients, it is important to know which strategy is the most suitable for certain building, considering the investment, life-cycle cost and special climate condition. In this research, energy efficient

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... rategies are discussed and compared under different climate conditions. Primary energy demand and total cost in service life are two indexes. The main part of this research has two main aspects, which are building envelope and building heating/cooling technology. Five cities (Urumqi, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming) are chosen as representative cities in these climate zones (severe cold, cold, hot summer and cold winter, hot summer and warm winter, warm). In the first parameter study, insulation layers of external wall, glazing types, window-to-wall ratio are discussed under selected climate conditions. In the second parameter study, overall building service system including space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water, lighting and appliances is examined. Different building service technologies such as solar thermal system, ground-coupled heat pump, air-source heat pump and photovoltaic system are discussed. Primary energy demand and total cost in service life are compared among different combinations.