Historical retrospect of research on heating load of civil buildings in Beijing

Presents the purpose, method and result of research on heating load of multi-story civil buildings being carried out from 1956 to 1963 , and another session to determine the thermal draft coefficients in high-rise civil buildings due to the stack effect being carried out from 1979 to 1983 in Beijing,  by task teams led by the author.  Research by the 1st task team concluded that rooms facing the least favorable exposure (North) should have zero correction, while those facing other exposures,  being favored by solar radiation during the heating season, should have negative correction factors respectively.  The result of research by the 2nd task team concluded that thermal draft coefficients for high-rise apartments and public buildings are 0.2 and 0.5 respectively. Design practice during the following decades has proven that the conclusions were correct and reliable.