Co-cooling, simulation-based exploration of a new method to measure the heat transfer coefficient of a building envelope in hot climate and summer period

Abstract

ABSTRACT The discrepancy between designed and as-built building performance can be quantified by a heat transfer coefficient (HTC) measurement. A reference method for measuring this coefficient is the co-heating test. However, the use of this method is limited to certain weather conditions. This work proposes a new method, complementary to the co-heating test, to be performed in summer or in hot climates, called the co-cooling test. This method consists in cooling the building instead of heating it. This article presents a numerical setup to prove the feasibility of the co-cooling test, determining ad-hoc linear regression models. To better account for solar gains, an equivalent outdoor temperature is used. In the cases studied, the simple linear regression method using an equivalent outdoor temperature enables the HTC to be determined with errors below 10%.