Casting larger silicon ingots by upgrading the hot zone is one of the main methods used to reduce the cost of multi-crystalline silicon wafers. In this paper, a new hot zone is designed and a transient global model is applied to investigate the effects of the new hot zone on the electricity consumption, the crystal growth rate, and the shape of the C-M interface during the solidification process. Based on the simulation results, a generation-five, directional-solidification furnace was upgraded and implemented in casting experiments. The experimental results show that the feedstock capacity increased by 77.8%, the crystal growth efficiency increased by 53.8%, and the average yield rate of the silicon ingots increased by 9%. The crystal-melt interface was flatter and the growth direction of the grains was almost straight upward. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.