Thermodynamic approach on the condensation risk in built environment

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.

Worldwide energy consumption in residential and public buildings represents almost one third of primary energy. It is one of the larger contributors to fossil fuel use and the carbon dioxide production. Therefore, many countries are currently developing projects for the implementation of measures aimed at energy efficiency for built environment aiming targets of consumption reduction of 15% to 30%. However, less careful implementation of some measures for energy conservation is creating problems of water condensation in both, the newly constructed and the old buildings. Those are problems that created a bad perception regarding energy conservation measures, and also resulted in serious quality problems in built ambient. The main goal of this work is to evaluate the condensation risk in built environment and the influence on the energy consumption of the “inside” thermal insulation placement. A single-zone time-dependent mathematical model is developed based on specific parameters characterizing buildings´ use for commercial purposes. Numerical solutions are determined for commercial buildings over the course of a year. Suitable low cost strategies for energy conservation are developed to avoid condensation and mould growth for a typical classroom at the Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil, and to prevent further degradation in problem buildings.