Abstract
Accurate information on the actual thermal transmittance of walls is vital to select appropriate energy-saving measures in existing buildings to meet the commitments of the European Green Deal. To obtain accurate results using the heat flow meter (HFM) method, good thermal contact must be made between the heat flow meter plate and the wall surface. This paper aimed to assess the influence of the non-perfect thermal contact of heat flow meter plates on the accuracy of in situ measurement of the façades’ U-value when a film was applied to avoid damage to the wall surface. Given the fact that to avoid harm to the wall surface, the laying of a film is a usual procedure in the installation of equipment during the building’s operational stage. The findings show that deviations between measured U-values when an HFM was installed directly on the wall surface and when an HFM was installed with a PVC film were found to differ significantly from the theoretical effect of including a PVC film during the monitoring process.
Highlights
Efficiency in terms of energy and resources is required by the European Green Deal when building and renovating the European building stock [1] for achieving the European Union’s energy efficiency targets [2]
Delving into boundary monitoring conditions, the factor of contact between the wall surface and the heat flow meter was analysed by simulations but has not been analysed in experimental tests [40], so as for the present study focuses on this aspect
One value was calculated using data from the heat flow meter plate installed with a layer of thermal interface material directly on the wall surface and the other value was calculated using data from the heat flow meter installed with a PVC film between the layer of thermal interface material and the wall
Summary
Efficiency in terms of energy and resources is required by the European Green Deal when building and renovating the European building stock [1] for achieving the European Union’s energy efficiency targets [2]. To meet the 2050 long-term climate and energy targets, 97% of the residential building stock, which is responsible for around 36% of CO2 emissions in the European Union [3], needs to be upgraded to become highly energy efficient and obtain the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) label A [4]. This high percentage is due partly to the average age of European residential building stock: more than 80% of residential buildings are over 25 years old (Table 1) and, most of them were built without thermal regulation. Space heating represents a large amount of energy consumption in the housing sector [7,8] and, has a significant capacity for energy saving
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