Quantifying Thermal Performance of the Building Envelope - Beyond Common Practice

Simon Pallin, Jason W. DeGraw, Mahabir Bhandari, Tyler Pilet

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Performance metrics serve as useful tools and indicators for many applications. For the building industry, various metrics exist; typically, these metrics do not assess the whole building performance. Instead, these represent separate components or heat transfer mechanisms of a building like R-value, U-factor/value, and airtightness. The mechanisms defined under these metrics all contribute significantly to the overall thermal performance of a building but will rarely act independently. There are metrics that account for the overall energy performance of a building, such as Energy Use Intensity (EUI). However, these metrics tend to be highly influenced by how the building is operated and used. There are also metrics which provide assessment on a relative basis. These indices are based upon comparison to a baseline, which complicates meaningful metric-based energy analyses. This paper presents a performance metric developed to account for various thermal properties and behaviors of a building. The metric accounts for all the relevant mechanisms that influence heat losses and gains in buildings and is thus directly related to the energy performance. In addition, the metric is designed to comprise air infiltration and allows users to account for workmanship quality, and imperfections of the building thermal resistance due to penetrations and other installations. This paper will describe how the metric can be applied for various building types and in different climates.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCurrent Topics and Trends on Durability of Building Materials and Components - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, DBMC 2020
EditorsCarles Serrat, Joan Ramon Casas, Vicente Gibert i Armengol
PublisherInternational Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering
Pages521-528
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9788412110180
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Event15th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, DBMC 2020 - Virtual, Online, Spain
Duration: Oct 20 2020Oct 23 2020

Publication series

NameCurrent Topics and Trends on Durability of Building Materials and Components - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, DBMC 2020

Conference

Conference15th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, DBMC 2020
Country/TerritorySpain
CityVirtual, Online
Period10/20/2010/23/20

Funding

This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/ downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Keywords

  • BEP
  • Demand
  • Energy
  • Thermal Mass
  • Whole-Building

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