Thermal performance of school building not only impact indoor thermal comfort

Abstract

Auckland has a temperate climate with comfortable warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Auckland school building thermal design not only focuses on winter indoor thermal comfort but also indoor health condition related to high relative humidity. A conventional Auckland school has a number of low-rise, isolated buildings with light weight envelopes. In over 90% of Auckland schools, each isolated building only has one to four classrooms. For these types of school buildings with a big ratio of building surface to volume, the thermal performance of building envelope becomes the most important design factor for indoor thermal and health conditions. Field study data of winter indoor microclimate of three classrooms with different insulation and thermal mass in their building envelopes are used for this study. The study not only compares and evaluates winter indoor thermal condition but also indoor health conditions of classrooms with different R-value and thermal mass in their envelopes. Increasing R-value without thermal mass in building envelope can increase winter indoor thermal conditions but cannot reduce fluctuations of indoor air temperature and relative humidity. Adding thermal mass in building envelope with similar R-value not only can improve indoor thermal condition but also improve indoor health conditions.