The inPSMence of thermal mass on thermal comfort

International Conference on Smart Materials & Structures

June 15 -17, 2015 Las Vegas, USA

Masoud Sajjadian

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Thermal comfort is crucial to ascertain the energy consumption in buildings and is a key factor for decision making in the design of sustainable building envelopes. This study presents a methodology to assess the combined performance of thermal mass and insulation thickness quantitatively on the basis of their impact on thermal comfort. A framework is proposed to deal with the risk of climate change temperature increases in the UK. Initially, a simple building model with five of the most commonly used, high performance construction systems for dwellings was examined for a range of low, medium and high thermal masses and afterwards systems were applied to a typical UK flat. Furthermore, the study used novel integration of phase change materials (PCM) with air gap to provide high level of thermal mass on a light system and quantified the effect. Manchester and London were the sites chosen for the modeling and current and future climate scenarios were examined. The dynamic thermal simulation used the software Design Builder, which employs EnergyPlus as its calculation engine. In essence, the study establishes a new approach for the assessing the performance of thermal mass and insulation thickness on the basis of overall annual thermal comfort hours.