The Study of Thermal Mass as a Passive Design Technique for Building Comfort and Energy Efficiency

The day/night (diurnal) changes in temperature and solar radiation pose challenges for maintaining human thermal comfort in buildings. Passive and energy-conserving buildings seek to manage the available thermal energy by lowering peaks and dampening the fluctuations in order to maintain conditions for human comfort. Appropriate use of thermal mass moderates the internal temperatures by averaging diurnal extremes. Thermal mass is one of the powerful tools which architects and designers can use to control temperature. It can be used to optimize the performance of energy-conserving buildings that rely primarily on mechanical heating and cooling strategies. Massive building envelopes-such as masonry, concrete, earth, and insulating concrete forms (ICFs) can be utilized as one of the simplest ways of reducing building heating and cooling loads. This article analyses the role and effectiveness of thermal mass as a strategy for providing indoor thermal comfort for passive solar and energy conserving buildings.