THERMAL BRIDIGING 2022-23

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The importance of the environment and environmental issues such as

global warming is ever increasing. In housing and construction, this results
in increasing levels of insulation to reduce the heating needed to maintain
comfortable conditions and heat loss through the fabric of the building. In
any construction there are points of low thermal resistance These points are
generally known as thermal bridges.
The main objective of this project was to evaluate the effect of heat loss
due to thermal bridging in buildings. In order to evaluate this, all the
bridges in several representative buildings were examined. The most
significant thermal bridges were selected and their effect on the
representative buildings was calculated. The total energy needs of the
representative buildings with and without the effects of thermal bridging
were also calculated. The difference is the heat loss due to thermal bridging
and can be referred to as the thermal bridging effect.
The number of different thermal bridging and their variations which can
exist in buildings is very numerous and it is therefore necessary to limit this
study. Buildings which are important m terms of annual energy use such as
domestic housing and which can be representative of the effect of thermal
bridging are selected This study is limited to housing, one of the major
sectors for annual energy.
1.1 What is Thermal Bridging?
Thermal bridges are paths for heat flow which are relatively uninsulated

Department of CIVIL Engineering, KLEIT, HUBBALLI Page

THERMAL BRIDIGING 2022-23

with respect to the rest of the building structure and therefore are points
of low thermal resistance in a building between interior and exterior.
1.2 Importance of Thermal Bridges
The Technical Guidance Document (TGD) of the 1991 Building
Regulations. Thermal bridges result in increased heat loss in a building
at present, thermal bridges are beginning to be recognised as a source of
heat loss and it is considered good building practice in the TGD of the
Building Regulations, Part L that thermal bridges should be prevented as
shown in Thermal Insulation avoiding risks. In practice, they are
sometimes only considered significant when they have a visible
effect on a building such as condensation or mould growth This occurs
with certain thermal bridges because they will have the lowest surface
temperature m a room. Water vapour will condense at the coldest point
in a room under certain environmental conditions especially if there is
limited ventilation. Depending on the type of material on which
condensation occurs, condensation can result in mould growth. In low
cost housing in particular, thermal bridging can have significant
environmental health implications. The importance of thermal bridges
increases dramatically as the levels of insulation increase This occurs,
because with increased levels of insulation, heat loss through opaque
parts of buildings is reduced. In such a case, thermal bridges which still
remain in the building will represent a higher proportion of total heat
loss than before.
Reducing and limiting thermal bridging in building will typically reduce
energy needs for the buildings and to eliminate the risk of the mould
growth, and to improve the comfort.

Department of CIVIL Engineering, KLEIT, HUBBALLI Page

THERMAL BRIDIGING 2022-23

CHAPTER 2
LITERATUR SURVEY

Department of CIVIL Engineering, KLEIT, HUBBALLI Page