Impact of different building materials on summer comfort in low-energy buildings

Abstract

The aim of the current paper is to analyse thermal comfort and overheating risks in the low-energy buildings in a summer season under Latvian climate conditions both experimentally and numerically. An interior temperature and relative humidity are analysed under free-floating conditions. Two cases are analysed: in one case, the solar influence through the window is taken into account; in the other this influence is omitted. Three different building solutions are observed: two building structures which mainly consist of the mineral wool and wooden materials and one structure from aerated clay bricks and mineral wool. The experiments have been implemented in test stands in Riga, Latvia. The numerical simulations based on measurements obtained from test stands have been performed using software WUFI Plus. The results show that the wooden constructions have high overheating risks.