Interrelation between glazed Surfaces, Building Structure and Thermal Comfort

ABSTRACT: In Hungary there are approximately four millions of households, placed in buildings with various thermal characteristics of the envelope. In the last years different national programs were started in order to improve the mean thermal resistance of the existing building stock. The main goal is to reduce the energy consumption in the building sector. Because the thermal comfort needs are continuously increasing, more and more dwellings/houses are equipped with air-conditioning systems. This paper analyses the effects of glazed area and different building structures, used especially at detached houses, on the internal temperature in the Hungarian climate. Using the Hungarian Standard for cooling load calculation, a program was developed and the obtained results were compared with measured data. Assuming that the required temperature is obtained without air conditioning system, the maximal glazed area is determined for different orientations for the most used building structures at detached houses. Also, the effect of additional thermal insulation was analysed