An Integrated Sensitivity Analysis Method for Energy and Comfort Performance of an Office Building along the Chinese Coastline

This study aimed to evaluate the comprehensive percentage influence of input parameters on building energy and comfort performance by a new approach of sensitivity analysis (SA) and explore the most reliable and neutral sampling and sensitivity assessment method. The research combined 7 sampling methods with 13 SA methods to comprehensively integrate the percentage influence of 25 input parameters on building energy and comfort performance in 24 coastal cities of China. The results have found that the percentage influence of many important input parameters is affected by geographical position. Considering both energy and comfort performance of the building, the key parameters are heating setpoint, infiltration rate, cooling setpoint, roof U value, roof solar absorptance, window solar heat gain coefficient, equipment, and occupant density, all of which could comprehensively impact 70% of energy demand and comfort performance along the Chinese coastline. This is of great significance for policymakers to formulate relative building regulations. After comparing the F-test and the exceed percentage test, we recommended the Pearson with Quasi-random sampling method as the most reliable SA assessment method in building simulation, followed by the standardized regression coefficient in random sampling and Latin hypercube sampling methods, which can achieve data closest to the average value.