Field Study of the Effect of Wall Mass on the Heating and Cooling Loads of Residential Buildings. (Log Home Report.)
Field Study of the Effect of Wall Mass on the Heating
and Cooling Loads of Residential Buildings. (Log Home
Report.)
(565 K)
Burch, D. M.; Remmert, W. E.; Krintz, D. F.; Barnes, C.
S.
Oak Ridge National Laboaratory. Building Thermal Mass
Seminar. Proceedings. June 2-3, 1982, Knoxville, TN,
1-47 pp, 1982.
Keywords:
residential buildings; thermal mass; wall heat
transmission; residential energy consumption; envelope
transfer; thermal transfer; weather effects
Abstract:
Six test buildings were extensively instrumented for
measuring heating and cooling loads, wall heat
transmission, and indoor temperature and humidity.
During these measurements, the effect of wall mass on
the heating and cooling loads was observed. These
buildings were exposed to a winter heating season, an
intermediate heating season, and a summer cooling
season. The test buildings were 20 x 20 ft (6.1 x 6.1
m) one room buildings constructed at Gaithersburg,
Maryland. These buildings had the same floor plan and
orientation. They were identical, except for the wall
construction, which was as follows: insulated
lightweight wood frame; uninsulated lightweight wood
frame; insulated masonry with outside mass; uninsulated
masonry; log; and insulated masonry with inside mass.
The insulated buildings including the log building were
designed to have walls of approximately equivalent
steady-state thermal resistance. No reductions in
heating energy attributable to wall mass were observed
furing the winter heating season, when the buildings
typically did not float (i.e., some heating energy was
suplied each hour). However, during the intermediate
heating season and the summer cooling season, when the
buildings floated during a portion of the day (i.e., no
heating or cooling load occurred during a portion of the
day and the indoor temperature rose above, or fell below
the indoor set temperature), significant reductions in
load attributable to wall mass were observed. Wall mass
was observed to have a larger effect when it was placed
inside the wall insulation as opposed to outside the
wall insulation.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899