OPTIMIZATION OF THERMAL MASS IN BUILDING ENVELOPE FOR PEAK ENERGY DEMAND REDUCTION

Abstract

Energy demand pattern of individual buildings shapes the grid level demand. This pattern of energy demand impacts the power system operation both at the national level and regional levels. The residential sector alone utilizes 30% of all electricity in developed countries, accounting for 21% of all CO2 emissions. [1]Various factors, such as meteorological parameters, occupant loads, sensible heat gains etc., are considered to measure the peak load and peak energy demand in the building. There have been several attempts to deal with the increasing peak energy demand crisis, by using various Passive and Active techniques at the building level. One of the robust technique is the effective use of thermal mass. The thermal mass of the building helps maintaining indoor thermal comfort by entrapping the cool or warmth inside the building even during external climatic severity. Thermal mass of a building can be described as a property that enables the building to store the heat inside the built envelop and offset/dampen the temperature fluctuations. The thermal mass of any material basically depends upon the two parameters. The first is the inner composition(i.e. properties) of the material and secondly, its relative position in buildings. This study will investigate the above two parameters and deduce effective composition of building envelope to reduce the peak demand. The study will focus on factors like thermo - physical property of materials, relative positioning of thermal mass and design considerations for effective thermal response.