Research Progress and Development Trends of Building Energy Conservation Based on Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

In order to mitigate the negative impact of increasing energy demand for buildings, a series of measures are taken to improve the energy efficiency in the built environment. Previous studies have found that household appliances, hot water supply and space heating in buildings account for a large proportion of energy consumption, where heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) contribute about 40% of the energy consumption as well as a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Energy saving while maintaining occupant comfort, therefore attract tremendous interest in the field where HVAC energy reduction or efficiency improvement are the key issues. By employing data mining and visualization technologies, this paper has reviewed highly crucial work in building energy systems with an attempt to explore the key researches as well as the future development trend. On the platform of CiteSpace with Web of Science (WOS) database, the key findings in line with building energy conservation technologies are collected. An innovative bibliometric method is used to map the knowledge in a visualizing way where research directions and cutting-edge technologies are discovered. This article also discusses the relationship between energy system development and national energy conservation policies with a specific focus on China's photovoltaic policies.