One of the most important functions of a building is to provide thermally comfortable indoor environmental conditions for the occupants. Therefore, a great deal of energy is consumed for heating and cooling to satisfy those thermal requirements. In order to provide thermal comfort with minimum heating and cooling energy consumption, optimal design of building affecting indoor climate is required. This study used the TRNSYS for modeling and simulation of the energy flows of residential building types, and examined the energy efficient measures to reduce the thermal loads. The residential building types are classified into the detached house, apartment house and high-rise residential complex. The results of the simulation show that the heating energy consumption in the detached house is especially high, whereas the cooling load is an important determinant in the apartment house and high-rise residential complex. The measures examined are the insulation thickness, various types of glazing, infiltration, natural and controlled ventilation, solar shading, orientation and etc. Comparative evaluations and sensitivity analyses revealed the effects of these variables and identified their energy efficient building design strategies.