Background: Numerical simulation has been used for assessing the process of outer environment performance calculations accurately. The ENVI-met has been used in studies in simulating the microclimate and energy cost in hot summer. On 27th November,2019, the latest ENVI-met v4.4.4 has been published, which is the first edition for forecasting the outdoor microclimate in winter, therefore, its accuracy is still needed to be discussed.
Methods: This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the latest edition on the prediction of the thermal environment of courtyard and outdoor space in a traditional dwelling settlement in cold climate zone of northern China by means of validating the measured results against simulated results.
Results: The final result shows a small deviation between simulated and measured results for assessing the microclimate in the research site.
Conclusions: For this reason, the new ENVI-met v4.4.4 can be a reliable tool for forecasting the winter microclimate in northern China, and also this study also provides a basic database for improving resident’s thermal comfort in cold climate zone of China in future studies.