A proposed methodology for the improvement of the simplified calculation of thermal bridges for well typified facades

Abstract

The precise calculation of the multi-dimensional heat losses through the external building fabric is a key issue in the accuracy of building energy calculations. With the help of an extensive thermal bridge database created for a well typifiable group of buildings – 19th century urban apartment houses – a detailed investigation is presented about the accuracy of the currently used simplified thermal bridge calculation method. A Monte Carlo simulation approach is applied to explore the various geometrical and constructional parameters that affect multidimensional heat losses and to generate a sufficiently large sample for the investigation. The inaccuracy of the current method is demonstrated and a possible new approach is introduced for its improvement.