On the Determination of Optimal Thermal Enclosures

The paper presents a method for a quantitative study of the influence of the diurnal air temperature cycle, the incidence of solar energy on exposed surfaces and transmission through glass areas, the longwave radiation exchange with the surroundings, and the energy exchange resulting from natural ventilation. The thermal response of a room in a typical concrete office building with glass areas facing south in the northern hemisphere is treated in detail by means of a digital computer program sufficiently general to handle a large variety of problems. For the first time the influence of “programmed” natural ventilation can be determined in advance. The design of optimal thermal enclosures can be achieved through the technique of “exhaustive analysis” using methods described in this paper.