Economic growth and improvements in living standards have resulted in an urgent demand for comfortable and healthy building environments, and this has led to a sharp increase in energy consumption in China. Therefore, in order to achieve a good balance between environmental quality of indoor thermal environment and energy consumption, it is crucial to identify the actual residential energy demand and its influencing factors. In this study, the annual energy demand for a typical multi-residential building in China was dynamically simulated, and the influence of building thermal performance and air-conditioning setting temperature was studied for each climate zone in China. The results show that energy saving strategies in China should be implemented accordingly in response to different climate and geographical conditions. In the severe cold and cold climate zones that require greater levels of heating in winter, air tightness of building should be considered a priority, as better air tightness can deliver a significant heating energy reduction, whereas the quality of the wall insulation is the main contributor to the indoor thermal environment in winter for all climate zones. On the other hand, in the south of China, where comfort in summer is the main concern, the improvement of external window performance and the addition of external shading are the key issues that need to be addressed. Compared with the poor effects of lowering heating temperature in the north of China, raising cooling temperature in the south is relatively effective method to save energy without causing a sharp deterioration of the indoor thermal environment. It may be realistic to reduce energy consumption and ensure the quality of indoor thermal environment in multi- residential buildings by using the appropriate climate-responsive energy-efficient measures.
