Indoor Climate Measurements in Buildings and Design Functions for Building Simulations

For the planning or energetic optimization of buildings, building physics simulation programs are indispensable tools. Even though relevant building physics standards and guidelines usually refer to stationary calculation methods to prove the serviceability of a building, these powerful planning tools usually also allow transient calculations in any time steps. However, the use of modern simulation programs leads to realistic evaluations only under the condition of valid, expected input variables. Well known are the building material parameters, as well as the site-related outdoor climate. For the indoor climate, such precise information does not exist yet. Nevertheless, the indoor climate is required as an essential input variable for many simulations and verifications in building physics. In this case, rough approximations are used in this case. Information in the literature on the development of the indoor climate is usually generally valid and does not differentiate between climate regions, occupancy profiles or room use. But especially for the increasingly powerful transient simulation programs, these data provide insufficient results. Indoor climate measurements are therefore carried out over a period of several years at various locations in Germany. Measurements are carried out in window-ventilated living spaces. This paper presents indoor climate measurements from this study over a measurement period of one year in twelve living rooms and nine associated bedrooms. From the measured values, the outdoor temperature and time-dependent compensation functions for indoor air temperature and dew point temperature are derived. During the measurement period, the living rooms were free of damage and showed different occupancy profiles. The comparison of both room types shows the great influence of room use on the indoor climate in residential buildings. This is especially true for the indoor air temperature. Model curves for the parameter of the indoor climate for both window-ventilated living rooms and bedrooms are derived from the measurement results. This information can be used as a basis for planning. Furthermore, it can also be used to check and evaluate simulation results with regard to the risk of condensation on the wall surface of the window-ventilated rooms.