According to the recast of the European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) all new buildings that will be built from 2021 and on, should be nearly zero energy buildings. The majority of buildings in Greece are heavyweight constructions that contain high amount of thermal mass. The relation and the integration of thermal mass materials with the entire NZEB performance were investigated in this dissertation. The first part of this dissertation presents a comparative evaluation and selection of thermal mass materials for periodic energy storage in buildings. A selection of materials using a selection strategy which includes a filtering process was implemented. During the selection process 127 different materials both conventional and unconventional were checked. An attempt to discover new alternative materials suitable for effective thermal energy storage was also made. Three materials stood out through the filtering process. Limestone, lightweight concrete and autoclaved aerated concrete. In the second part of the dissertation a dynamic thermal simulation of the selected materials the climatic conditions of the four climatic zones of Greece, was implemented. The thermal performance of walls constructed from the above materials was compared with the performance of common brick walls. Finally, the use of thermal mass for energy storage in order to overcome the mismatch barrier between supply and demand in a NZEB by implementing a simple pre-cooling strategy during the summer months was also investigated.
Collections
Show Collections