Building Thermal Performance

Building thermal performance is the assessment of a building’s ability to create comfortable internal conditions and refers to the effectiveness of a building’s ability to influence, control and facilitate user control over the movement of heat energy within a building and between the building and its surroundings.

Various external factors influence thermal performance of a building such as climate, wind, location, environment, building orientation, design, materials used, occupancy and occupant behavior.

High thermal performance may provide the occupants an internal environment that costs less to heat and cool and also reduces the impact of energy consumption overall.

When calculating heating and cooling loads it is seen that heat loss or gain through a building element is effected by the resistance to heat flow of the materials, the area of the material and the amount of air movement on either side of the element.

A high thermal performance can be achieved by considering as a minimum orientation, insulation, thermal mass, glazing, shading, ventilation and landscaping.

Please contact EES if you wish to have your building assessed for optimal building thermal performance.