Experimental Study on Thermal Performance of Externally Insulated Walls of Intermittent Air-Conditioned Rooms in Summer in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Region, China

Now requirements for the thermal performance of building walls are based on the assumption that heat flux transfers in one direction through the wall. However, in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Region of China, the direction of heat flow in the wall not only changes with the seasons, but also changes in the same period of using. In this paper, dynamic thermal process of externally insulated walls in different air-conditioner’s running state in summer in Chongqing, China, was tested. The distribution characteristics of the outdoor and indoor air temperature and the surface and inner temperatures of the wall were analyzed and demonstrated. Based on the unsteady-state heat transfer theory, the study calculated and analyzed the distribution characteristics of the direction of the heat flux in the thermal process. Also the characteristics of insulation and heat preservation for walls under different air-conditioner’s running state were analyzed. It is shown that, in any air-conditioner’s running state, the direction of the heat flux through the wall is obviously dynamically changing. There is obvious difference in the thermal performance needs of the wall; that is, it has strong demand for thermal insulation in daytime and strong demand for heat dissipation during night time in summer