## 4 Results and Discussion
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Orientation** & **Hailar** & **Harbin** & **Urumchi** & **Lanzhou** & **Beijing** \\ \hline East & 126.67 & 101.93 & 92.04 & 66.31 & 74.60 \\
80 Degrees East of South & 125.89 & 101.13 & 91.72 & 65.90 & 74.23 \\
70 Degrees East of South & 124.97 & 100.27 & 91.31 & 65.43 & 73.77 \\
60 Degrees East of South & 123.93 & 99.32 & 90.81 & 64.88 & 73.19 \\
50 Degrees East of South & 122.80 & 98.34 & 90.25 & 64.28 & 72.51 \\
40 Degrees East of South & 121.62 & 97.34 & 89.65 & 63.65 & 71.78 \\
30 Degrees East of South & 120.48 & 96.38 & 89.07 & 63.03 & 71.03 \\
20 Degrees East of South & 119.50 & 95.59 & 88.58 & 62.52 & 70.38 \\
10 Degrees East of South & 118.79 & 95.05 & 88.25 & 62.19 & 69.93 \\ South & 118.44 & 94.89 & 88.16 & 62.14 & 69.79 \\
10 Degrees West of South & 118.48 & 95.04 & 88.32 & 62.37 & 69.99 \\
20 Degrees West of South & 118.92 & 95.59 & 88.72 & 62.89 & 70.49 \\
30 Degrees West of South & 119.70 & 96.39 & 89.28 & 63.60 & 71.20 \\
40 Degrees West of South & 120.74 & 97.40 & 89.93 & 64.38 & 71.99 \\
50 Degrees West of South & 121.90 & 98.45 & 90.56 & 65.13 & 72.75 \\
60 Degrees West of South & 123.10 & 99.46 & 91.14 & 65.78 & 73.44 \\
70 Degrees West of South & 124.25 & 100.41 & 91.62 & 66.32 & 74.03 \\
80 Degrees West of South & 125.31 & 101.24 & 91.99 & 66.73 & 74.50 \\ West & 126.23 & 102.00 & 92.25 & 67.02 & 74.87 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 19: Annual energy consumption of straw building in the five cities (kWh/ m\({}^{2}\)). on the energy performance of buildings in view of life cycle cost and layer succession order of the opaque walls will be studied in the future research. (2) Heating and cooling loads. Figure 7 presents the annual building energy consumption in the five cities. Overall, the calculated heating energy-saving ratios of the CLT buildings in Hailar, Harbin, Urumchi, Lanzhou, and Beijing are 3.04%, 7.39%, 7.43%, 12.69%, and 13.41% respectively. The ratios for straw buildings are 8.04%, 22.09%, 22.17%, 33.02%, and 34.28%, respectively. In the Severe Cold region, heating energy is the major demand, accounting for 60%-70% of total energy consumption, followed by the appliance energy and lighting. In contrast, heating energy accounts for 30%-50% of the total energy in the Cold region. In these climates, thermal insulation is crucial to lower overall energy consumption. Hence, timber and straw have significant advantages due to their superior thermal resistance. Figure 8 indicates that there is a risk of overheating with CLT and straw bale buildings in comparison with RC structures. This means that more energy would be required for cooling of the timber and straw buildings in summer. Thermal mass is a property of the building material that enables it to store heat, providing inertia against temperature fluctuations. Amongst these three materials, straw bale has the lowest thermal mass, followed by CLT and RC. Hence, in terms of thermal mass and thermal comfort in the summer, CLT and straw bales may not be suitable alternative building materials for climate regions with considerable cooling requirements. Figure 8: Annual building energy consumption proportion in five cities (Building orientation: South). Figure 7: Annual building energy consumption in five cities (Building orientation: South). Although the thermal performance of RC is not as good as that of CLT and straw bales, reinforced concrete is the most widely applied building material in Northern China. The market for CLT and straw bales is still in development in China. There are only two CLT factories at present, located in Dalian, Liaoning Province and Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. The initial material cost of CLT and straw bale buildings may not be as competitive as that of RC buildings at present. However, with the development of bio-based building materials promoted by government, there is great potential to develop the timber and straw industry in the cold regions. (3) Building orientation and building height.