Abstract
This study aims to highlight the importance of thermal inertia in buildings. Nowadays, it is possible to use energy analysis software to simulate the building energy performance. Considering Italian standards, these analyses are based on the UNI TS 11300 that defines the procedures for the national implementation of the UNI EN ISO 13790. These standards require an energy analysis under steady-state condition, underestimating the thermal inertia of the building. In order to understand the inertial behavior of walls, a cubic Test-Cell was modelled through the dynamic calculation code TRNSYS and three different wall types were tested. Different stratigraphies, characterized by the same thermal transmittance value, composed by massive elements and insulating layers in different order, were simulated. Through TRNSYS, it was possible to define maximum surface temperatures and to calculate thermal lag between maximum values, both external and internal. Moreover, the attenuation between external surface temperatures and internal ones during summer (July) was calculated. Finally, the comparison between Test-Cell’s annual energy demands, performed by using a commercial code based on the Italian standard UNITS 11300 and the dynamic code, TRNSYS, was carried out.
Highlights
Improving thermal performance of buildings is the first step to reduce annual energy demand and, air pollution
The first intervention is related to the thermal transmittance value reduction but it is important to emphasize the building energy savings that could be achieved by exploiting thermal inertia
Three wall types were analyzed by using the dynamic software TRNSYS
Summary
Improving thermal performance of buildings is the first step to reduce annual energy demand and, air pollution. The thermal inertia evaluation is done using numerical methods and several authors evaluated the influence of the walls thermal properties on the building energy performance, by comparing different construction systems [2,3,4,5,6]. In order to correctly evaluate buildings inertial properties it is important to employ models that take into account all thermal characteristics likethermal conductivity, mass density and, obviously, specific heat capacity. In the case study by De LietoVollaro et al [8] a dynamic software is used to evaluate the energy demand of a historical building and thermal inertia is taken into account by means of the advanced calculation code
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