Improving thermal comfort whilst remaining efficient

Europe is home to a wide range of architectural styles, reflecting both the continent’s varying climates and its social and economic history. While aesthetic and practical concerns remain prominent, it is energy efficiency which is the priority for today’s architects, says Dr Jens Pfafferott of the ThermCo project.

Energy efficiency is the ultimate priority for European practitioners and research into innovative energy-saving concepts has acquired a correspondingly urgent momentum; take the example of the ThermCo (low energy cooling and thermal comfort) project, an EC-funded initiative working in eight different locations across Europe. “We evaluate the performance of low-energy cooling concepts based on three criteria: thermal comfort, thermal energy and the overall energy demand of the building,” explains Dr Jens Pfafferot, the project’s overall coordinator. “Thermal comfort – such as the operator room temperature – is measured at time intervals of one hour over the course of a year. Room temperature is measured to plot against ambient air temperature, and the model we use is called an adaptive thermo-comfort model, while we also measure the cooling load, which is defined as the energy going directly into the building.”

“The main goal of ThermCo is to improve thermal comfort and energy efficiency simultaneously. We aim to show that it’s possible to achieve high thermal comfort while keeping energy demand low,” he says. The project aims to address the fragmented nature of current building standards. “ThermCo aims to bring together the standards dealing with thermal comfort and low-energy cooling. People might think that the higher the cooling load the greater the comfort, but our European case studies demonstrate quite clearly that the key issue is what we call ‘integrated design’ – which means you need (among others) high-performance ventilation, good solar saving systems and thermal mass in the building to improve comfort and efficiency, and the benefits are felt in the long-term. If a building is well designed then you only need lean building services”.

“Furthermore, we have a lot of knowledge on thermo-active building systems like floor heating and radiant cooling. These products are already widely available; however, if we want to reduce energy demand then we have to look at the system overall and how the different products work together – it is this area we plan to focus on in the coming years.”

Contact Dr Jens Pfafferott, Project Coordinator, at jens.pfafferott@ise.fraunhofer.de

Published: Monday, 9th November 2009

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