Influence of the internal inertia of the building envelope on summertime comfort in buildings with high internal heat loads

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of thermal mass placed on the inner side of the building envelope, described as the dynamic internal areal heat capacity (International Standard ISO 13786), on the summertime thermal comfort in buildings characterised by high internal heat loads. To that aim, simultaneous monitoring was carried out on rooms with high internal heat loads (school classrooms), varying the internal inertia of the envelope through the introduction of an insulating panel on the interior side. Analytical assessment was performed in order to include different inertia values and combinations of both external and internal heat loads. The study allowed the threshold values of internal areal heat capacity to be determined with respect to the different periodic transmittance values of the walls, assessed according to the adaptive thermal comfort model described in Standard EN15251. These values could be adopted in energy saving regulations which, being based on semi-stationary calculation models, tend to consider the performance of building envelopes as analogous even if there is different thermal inertia.