Dr. Elisabeth Kossecka

Polish Academy of Sciences, Ecological Building Group
Swietokrzyska 21, 00 049 Warsaw, Poland

 Dr. Jan Kosny

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Bldg. 3147, MS 6070,
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6070, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

In this short report, the effect of mass and insulation location on heating and cooling loads is analyzed for six characteristic wall configurations. Correlations between structural and dynamic thermal characteristics of walls are discussed. A simple one-room model of a building exposed to periodic temperature changes is analyzed to illustrate the effect of material configuration on the ability of a wall to dampen interior temperature swings. Whole-building dynamic modeling using DOE-2.1E is employed for the energy analysis of a one-story residential building with various exterior wall configurations for six different U.S. climates. The best thermal performance is obtained when massive material layers are located at the inner side and directly exposed to the interior space.

KEY WORDS: building heat transfer, structure factors, frequency response, thermal stability, dynamic thermal performance