ABSTRACT
The paper presents and discusses the issue of thermal mass of the inner skin in double façade systems (DSF). In the project the glazing ratio and the construction of the inner part including the analysis of sensible (traditional materials) and latent (phase change materials) storage potential have been investigated. The thermal analysis of DSF has been done using a whole building simulation technique – Environmental System Performance (ESP-r). The innovative character of the materials required refining of ESP-r in order to take into account isothermal storage of heating energy. The results of air and surface temperature show the differences between light and heavy traditional constructions, but using phase change materials (PCMs) does not play such an important role. However, phase change materials store (almost isothermally) a large amount of solar energy during summer and finally release it at the beginning of the following heating season.
