04.05.2020

Experimental study of the influence of thermal mass on thermal comfort and cooling energy demand in residential buildings

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Central Europe is one of the regions with the highest increase in extreme heat waves. Moreover, people living in temperate climates are more vulnerable to the negative effects of such events than people living in warmer climates. Building designers have for many years focused mainly on optimisation in order to reduce year-round energy consumption, which in climatic conditions in most European countries depends mainly on heating energy. Saving heating energy will remain a priority, but it will become increasingly important to protect inhabitants from the negative effects of high summer temperatures. As a result, it will be necessary to adapt existing buildings to unprecedented high summer temperatures; mainly looking for new energy-efficient methods of protecting buildings against overheating and adapting solutions used in warmer climates to temperate climate conditions, whereas buildings designed and constructed now will exist until the end of the 21st century. One of the passive measures of preventing overheating is heat storing using thermal mass of building partitions. More information can be found on the learning platform.