Design of building's exterior walls has important influence on energy consumption, building cost and thermal comfort. It influences also heating and cooling devices size. Optimization of energy consumption of the building requires consideration of the building materials, their thickness and mass, type and thickness of insulation, and location of the insulation layer. The correct way to optimize all the above parameters is calculation of temperatures and energy consumption in dynamic process, which means considering changes every few seconds. This may be done only with computer program. It is not easy to gain expertise on such programs. In addition, submission of input values to the program is time consuming and frustrating process, which in many times ends with errors. This work analyses if the Thermal Time Constant method may be applied to determine energy quality of the building as an alternative to the dynamic simulation program. The Thermal Time Constant method is much easier, simpler and faster than computer dynamic simulation program. Few examples of exterior wall design were selected to calculate the energy consumption and room temperatures. Two locations were selected for the calculations, one with moderate summer and the second with moderate winter. The dedicated dynamic simulation computer program was applied to gain data regarding the energy consumption, maximum and average room temperatures for south facing room and for north facing room at each location. Thermal Time Constant reflects the thermal inertia and thermal mass of the building. Higher Thermal Time Constant (TTC) moderates the difference between day and night in the room, flattening the room temperatures extremes caused by ambient temperature and solar energy. Higher TTC is not necessary more expensive. To take advantage of high TTC is not so the question of additional investment, but the question of understanding the TTC concept. In some cases consideration of TTC caused changes to the building's design and construction technique, bringing benefits to the contractor, to the tenants and to the national economy. Disregarding TTC leads to wrong decisions, wrong design, waste of money for building's construction and increased energy consumption.

The second volume targets practitioners and focuses on the process of green architecture by combining concepts and technologies with best practices for each integral design component

The importance of an integrated approach in urban design is becoming increasingly apparent. This book explains how to overcome related challenges in environmental design of urban buildings and offers guidance on the use of new materials and techniques and the integration of new philosophies. Supported by the EC's SAVE 13 programme, Environmental Design of Urban Buildings includes contributions from experts at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, the Hellenic Open University, Greece, Cambridge Architectural Research, UK and REHVA/University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. A free CD-ROM containing multi-media software tools and climatic data accompanies the book. CONTENTS Environmental Urban Design * Architectural Design, Passive Environmental and Building Engineering Systems * Environmental Issues of Building Design * Sustainable Design, Construction and Operation * Intelligent Controls and Advanced Building Management Systems * Urban Building Climatology * Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena in Urban Buildings * Applied Lighting Technologies for Urban Buildings * Case Studies * Guidelines to Integrate Energy Conservation * Indoor Air Quality * Applied Energy and Resources Management in the Urban Environment * Economic Methodologies * Integrated Building Design * Bibliography, Index Published with SAVE

Thermal Time Constant (TTC) indicates the time required for change of 63.2% of temperature difference. This work develops useful application of TTC for determination of temperature change in buildings. Higher TTC results in slower change of room temperature, contributing to thermal comfort, to quality of the building and to energy conservation. The procedure developed in the work is for both purposes: to find the temperature change in the period of time and to find the period of time of specific temperature change.

The design of a building's exterior walls has an important influence on energy consumption, building cost and thermal comfort. It influences also heating and cooling devices’ size. Optimization of energy consumption of the building requires consideration of the building materials, their thickness and mass, type and thickness of insulation, and location of the insulation layer. The correct way to optimize all the above parameters is a calculation of temperatures and energy consumption in a dynamic process, which means considering changes every few seconds. This may be done only with a computer program. It is not easy to gain expertise in such programs. In addition, submission of input values to the program is time consuming and frustrating process, which many times ends with errors. This work introduces the term “Thermal Time Constant” which may be applied to determine the thermal quality of the building as an alternative to the dynamic simulation program. The Thermal Time Constant method is much easier, simpler and faster than a computer dynamic simulation program. Higher Thermal Time Constant (TTC) moderates the difference between day and night in the room, flattening the room temperature extremes caused by ambient temperature and solar energy. Higher TTC is not necessary necessarily more expensive. To take advantage of high TTC is not so the question of additional investment, but the question of understanding the TTC concept. In some cases consideration of TTC caused changes to the building's design and construction technique, bringing benefits to the contractor, the tenants and the national economy. Disregarding TTC leads to wrong decisions, wrong design, waste of money on building construction and increased energy consumption.