ABSTRACT
As has been shown elsewhere [Burmeister 1996], the thermal dynamics of a room can be described in an excellent approximation by only three parameters: The generalized loss coefficient K, the time constant τ and the gain-to-loss factor γ. As a first step of a successive optimization, in all climates the loss factors must be kept as low as possible, in a second step a best combination of time constant (storage capacity etc.) and gain-to-loss-coefficient (windows size etc.) must be found. For this a new method has been developed: The free-run-temperature (FRT) of a room in a given climate is its most important characteristic and is completely defined by these three parameters. The more time this FRT of a room remains in the comfort range of internal temperatures: zero energy hours (ZEH), the less thermal energy and power is needed to operate it and thus the better a design is adapted to the climate. With these fundamentals the optimization of the climate adapted design is transformed into a simple maximization of the ZEH depending only on τ and γ: ZEH(τ,γ). Also the effect of a variable sun-shading as well as of internal sources can easily be included. Some examples are given. As an illustration, in the appendix a first attempt for the classification of climates based on the principal parameters is presented.
