Evaluation of a building’s cooling performance under the walls’ dynamic thermal resistance

ABSTRACT

The energy consumption mitigation of the building sector, one of the most energy-consuming, is a major target of the European policy. Recent studies indicate that increased thermal protection may burden the energy performance of a building in warm and hot regions by increasing the overheating risk during the warm season. In this study, a building is studied in the four climatic zones of Greece in southern Europe, and the overheating risk, for a high, a low U-value, as well as for a dynamic thermal insulation system is investigated. The investigation is conducted under the influence of two thermostat types, i.e., a template and an operative temperature one, and two wall configurations, i.e., with perforated clay bricks and with thermally insulated blocks. The results demonstrate a significant reduction of the annual energy demands with the envelope of the lower U-value, even if increased cooling loads up to 12% are detected in some regions, mainly due to a cold season penalty. However, the switching insulation system leads to an important improvement on the building’s overall performance, reaching up to 68% reduced cooling needs for the office building, while at the same time, ensuring the required thermal protection during the cold season.

KEYWORDS:

• Overheating risk
• dynamic thermal insulation
• switchable insulation
• energy efficiency
• building envelope

Nomenclature

Table

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aikaterina Karanafti

Aikaterina Karanafti is a civil engineer and a PhD candidate in Laboratory of Building Construction and Building Physics, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her research is about energy efficient and sustainable buildings.

Theodoros Theodosiou

Theodoros Theodosiou is an Associate Professor in Laboratory of Building Construction and Building Physics, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki