MARCO PERINO1, ALFONSO CAPOZZOLI, YLENIA CASCONE

1 Department Of Energy – DENERG, Politecnico di Torino – Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy – www.polito.it/TEBE

Improvements on the energy efficiency in buildings may be achieved through the exploitation of the dynamic characteristics of walls. It has been demonstrated that a proper integration between passive energy storage in building structures and mechanical installations can provide significant energy savings for space heating and cooling. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that well known procedures have been established over time to characterise the “static” thermal features of walls and opaque envelope components, so far no standardized procedures have been developed to measure and characterise the dynamic thermal properties of walls. In the present paper an experimental method to characterise the dynamic thermal properties of opaque walls will be proposed. The method features and its application to a number of different wall types (also including PCM) will be described. Experimental results will be critically analysed and a standardized procedure will be proposed. Critical conclusions will also be drawn comparing the information achievable through the experimental tests and those obtained through numerical simulations.

Keywords: dynamic thermal properties, dynamic u value, properties measurements and modelling