A conceptual model for how to design for building envelope characteristics. Impact of thermal comfort intervals and thermal mass on commercial buildings in U.S. climates
Journal article, 2021

The paper presents a simplified conceptual model for energy demand calculations based on building envelope characteristics, thermal mass and local climate. It is based on a network model and lumped analysis of the dynamic process. Characteristic parameters for the buildings are suggested; Driving temperature (DT), Driving temperature difference, (DTD), External Load Temperature (ELT), and Thermal Load Resistance (TLR). The Building Envelope Performance (BEP0), based on a controlled constant indoor temperature is introduced. Solution techniques using stable explicit forward differences based on analytical solutions are derived. The conceptual model has been used for mapping the Driving temperature difference and introduced two performance factors α and β. The first factor represents the effect of thermal comfort interval and thermal mass on the energy demand. The latter represents the ratio between cooling and heating energy demand. These three parameters and factors have been visualized on U.S. maps and enable a possibility to communicate the demand of energy, and cooling and the coupling to building characteristics, in a concise way.

Building envelope performance

Thermal mass

Network

Lumped model

Energy demand

Conceptual model

Author

Carl-Eric Hagentoft

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Simon Pallin

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Journal of Building Engineering

2352-7102 (eISSN)

Vol. 35 101994

Subject Categories

Energy Engineering

Energy Systems

Building Technologies

DOI

10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101994

More information

Latest update

2/1/2021 1