Influence of local conditions and in situ measured values in energy demand estimation of traditional buildings

The work here described is part of the PhD thesis that is being developed with the goal of studying the hygrothermal behavior and energy performance of several dwellings in the Dry-Mediterranean Climate. In this phase, after an annual campaign of in situ experimental tests, research now focuses on the assessment and quantification of the influence of local climate conditions and thermal values of rammed earth walls on energy demands of common traditional buildings in La Mancha. To achieve it, energy simulations have been performed on two buildings, with three goals. 1) Evaluation of construction systems which include walls with a high thermal inertia in comparison with contemporary systems. 2) Study the influence of theoretical values of walls and user activity taken from nominal data in the Catalogue of Building Components (CEC), that can be found in the Technical Building Code (CTE), and compare it with the use of actual in situ data and surveys; 3) Contrast between using standard and actual climate data recorded with a private weather station placed in the same location as the studied buildings. Research like [1], [2], [3] also execute energy simulations of rammed earth buildings and components but in a different climate, while other papers like [4], [5], [6], [7] also compare in situ values with nominal data but the main material of the studied buildings is not rammed In conclusion, results show that: 1) Energy demands of spaces where the theoretical transmittance value (or U-value) has been used are 52-55% higher in winter and 9-15% higher in summer than those where the in situ value has been used. 2) The use of theoretical information against the use of actual surveys about user activity can generate 12-26% difference in energy demands. 3) On the contrary, the use of available climate data measured at nearby locations would produce lower energy demands than using values recorded in the same location as the buildings, being up to 64% lower in winter months and up to 100% lower in summer months. Future research should be performed using combined heat and moisture models (HAMT in Energy Plus), as several studies have demonstrated that there is and important relation between thermal values and water content of the material [earth.