Alterman, Dariusz1; Page, Adrian W.2; Zhang, Congcong3 and Moghtaderi, Behdad4
1 Senior Research Fellow, The University of Newcastle, Priority Research Centre for Frontier Energy Technologies & Utilisation, Australia, dariusz.alterman@newcastle.edu.au
2 Professor Emeritus, The University of Newcastle, Priority Research Centre for Frontier Energy Technologies & Utilisation, Australia, adrian.page@newcastle.edu.au
3 Research Assistant, The University of Newcastle, Priority Research Centre for Frontier Energy Technologies & Utilisation, Australia, congcong.zhang@uon.edu.au
4 Professor, The University of Newcastle, Priority Research Centre for Frontier Energy Technologies & Utilisation, Australia, behdad.moghtaderi@newcastle.edu.au
ABSTRACT
An appropriately designed house leads to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and decreases in heating and cooling costs, as well as maintaining acceptable levels of comfort for the occupants. Good thermal performance of housing leads to lower energy consumption and an appropriate thermal comfort level regardless of the weather conditions. This paper presents the results of a study of the impact of internal partition walls and the interior leaf of multi-layered enclosure walling systems (such as cavity brick and reverse brick veneer), on the overall thermal performance of typical Australian housing systems. The thermal performance of several housing test modules incorporating different walling systems with various amounts of thermal mass with/without carpet on the slab-on-ground floor was observed over a range of weather conditions. The study empirically confirmed that the influence of the horizontal thermal mass of the floor slab was greater for those modules with lightweight or insulated brick veneer walling systems (modules for which the slab floor is the only interior component of thermal mass). The internal air temperature was also less impacted by external temperature changes when no carpet covered the floor and brick masonry was present in the internal leaf of the enclosure walls (i.e. for cavity brick and insulated cavity brick modules).
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