Instantaneous field measurements of thermal bridge parameters in ground floor residential room

Abstract

The “thermal bridges” are defined as an isolated building’s areas, where the construction elements have higher thermal conductivity, compared with the rest of the building envelope. Thus, at cold winter conditions, a significant temperature difference may occur between neighbouring solid and air volumes within the construction. Moreover, it has been documented, that the heating energy demand of a building may be increased with more than 30%, due to the existence of thermal bridges and the increased heat losses from the indoors. Consequently, in the recent years, norms and standards have been developed, for avoiding thermal bridges during the building design process. But still, thermal bridges exist in the indoor environment, especially in older buildings, where no energy efficient measures have been applied. That is why, the presented study focuses on instantaneous field measurements of thermal bridge parameters in real existing ground floor residential room. The thermal bridge propagation is analysed relative to the indoor and outdoor air temperature and relative humidity, as well as with infrared thermal images of the affected external walls. The achieved results give valuable information about the generic conditions for thermal bridge existence, without considering the building envelope properties.