In recent years, Thermal Energy Storage (TES) is becoming more and more important in different engineering applications. As far as the building sector is concerned, TES is considered a crucial feature to reach the net-Zero Energy Building (nZEB) goal. Commonly, TES in building is obtained using the sensible heat property of conventional building materials (building thermal inertia). The drawbacks of this strategy are: the low amount of thermal energy that can be stored; the overheating of the indoor environment that may occur if elevate amount of heat is collected by a conventional building material. On the contrary, the exploitation of…

The building enclosure plays a relevant role in the management of the energy flows in buildings and in the exploitation of the solar energy at building scale. An optimized configuration of the façade can contribute to reduce the total energy demand of the building. Traditionally, the search for the optimal façade configuration is obtained by analyzing the heating demand and/or the cooling demand only, while the implication of the façade configuration on the energy demand for artificial lighting is often not considered, especially during the first stage of the design process. A global approach (i.e. including heating, cooling and artificial…

The adoption of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) in building components is an up-to-date topic and a relevant number of research activities on this issue are currently on the way. A particular application of PCMs in the building envelope focuses on the integration of such a kind of material into transparent envelope components. A numerical model that describes the thermo-physical behaviour of a PCM layer in combination with other transparent materials (i.e. glass panes) has been developed to perform numerical analyses on various PCM glazing systems configurations. The paper illustrates the structure of the model, the main equations implemented and the…

The introduction of dynamic envelope components and systems can have a significant reduction effect on heating and cooling demands. In addition, it can contribute to reduce the energy demand for artificial lighting by better utilization of the daylight. One of these promising technologies is Phase Change Materials (PCM). Here, the latent heat storage potential of the transition between solid and liquid state of a material is exploited to increase the thermal mass of the component. A PCM layer incorporated in a transparent component can increase the possibilities to harvest energy from solar radiation by reducing the heating/cooling demand and still…

Sandwich elements are widely used in the building envelope, in walls and foundations in particular. The thickness of sandwich elements is increasing as the demand for reduced heat loss from the building envelope is required. The building industry is searching for means and alternative materials to reduce the volume of the building envelope, but at the same time obtain the same thermal performance. Sandwich element constructions might be suitable for highly effective insulation materials as VIPs (Vacuum Insulation Panels). The possibilities of optimizing the thermal performance and by the same time decreasing the thickness and reducing the volume of aggregated…

While the design and construction of envelopes for Passive House certified homes in central European climates is well developed and has achieved widespread acceptance and reliability, the same cannot be said in colder climate regions such as the United States’ upper Midwest (DOE climate zones 6 and 7) and Scandinavia. The objective of this research was to study some of the typical building performance issues relating to Passive House envelope construction for single family homes in cold climates by testing and developing a group of 8 envelope options. Typical issues include unfamiliarity with performance of thermal bridge details, added embodied…