Impact of residential building heating on natural gas consumption in the south of China: Taking Wuhan city as example

Abstract With the development of social economy, heating in the south of China has been concerned widely. As one of the energy sources of decentralized heating, natural gas (NG) has been used more and more popularly. This paper aimed to study the impact of residential building heating on NG consumption, and took Wuhan city, the representative city needing heating in winter of the south of China due to its location and climate, as an example. Firstly, a typical residential building model was established through DeST software. The heating load was simulated, and the corresponding NG consumption index was calculated. Secondly, appropriate methods were used to forecast the basic data of Wuhan city in 2020, including households and per capita gross national product (GDP), etc. Thirdly, the NG consumption of residential buildings with and without heating were predicted. Finally, the impact of residential building heating on NG consumption was analyzed. The results showed that the average annual household heating consumption of residential building in Wuhan city in 2020 was 2100 kWh/ household, and the NG consumption using for residential building heating was 295 Nm3/household. In addition, the NG consumption of residential building generated by space heating with 100% heating rate was 2.82 times the NG consumption generated by the stove and water heater, showing that residential building heating had a large impact on NG consumption. This study can contribute to choosing appropriate heating method in the southern cities of China, and further planning the gas pipe network in these cities.