ABSTRACT
Prediction of the building thermal load and thermal response is fundamental to building performance simulation. This chapter aanlyses heat transfer to, from and within the building envelope; calculation of building heating and cooling loads; and energy calculations related to the building envelope and simulation of rooms and zones to predict temperatures, loads and required heat transfer to and from the building system. In building load calculations, thermal radiation is generally thought of as being a surface-to-surface phenomenon either between surfaces within the building or between the surface of the sun and the building surfaces. Thermal radiation emitted by any surface will have a range of wavelengths, depending upon the temperature of the emitting surface. The heat balance model may be implemented with a wide variety of sub-models, e.g. different exterior convection models, different transient conduction models, and different interior radiation models.
