Experimental and Numerical Study on the Dynamic Thermal Response of Building Interior Decoration Coatings during Intermittent Air-Conditioning in High U-Values Buildings in China

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 5; p. 1934
• Main Authors: Li, Yanru, Chen, Yong, Zhang, Lili, Li, Xinyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-03-2022
• Subjects: Air conditioning; Coatings; Construction; Cooling loads; Cooling systems; Energy conservation; Energy consumption; Heat transfer; HVAC; Indoor air quality; Indoor environments; indoor thermal environment; Insulation; interior decoration coating; Interior design; intermittent air-conditioning; Precooling; Specific heat; Surface temperature; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; Thermal diffusivity; Thermal environments; Thermal response; Urban environments; China
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en15051934

Interior decorating coatings (IDCs) are the heat-transfer medium between indoor air and building walls, which mainly form the cooling load and are important in an indoor built environment. To explore the impacts of the precooling process of IDCs on indoor thermal environment of occupants during intermittent air conditioning, this paper investigated the dynamic thermal response of IDCs. Three representative coating materials were integrated to the external insulation wall and internal insulation wall, and their interior surface temperatures were experimentally tested under intermittent air conditioning operation in southern China. Moreover, a heat transfer model was established and verified to analyze the influences of IDC on the thermal response of the interior surface. During the pull-down process, the cold was accumulated in the IDC layer with small thermal diffusivity and could not be transferred into the wall inside, so that the largest temperature reduction was obtained, meaning that the indoor thermal environment could meet the setpoint in a short time. According to modelling calculations, the thick IDC with volumetric specific heat capacity less than 1 × 105 J/(m3·K) and small thermal conductivity integrated to the internal insulation wall was beneficial to increase the thermal response rate and had the better energy-saving efficiency.