Building energy performance 1 - Heat transfer in

buildings
Simon Rouchier
27 September 2021

In order to calculate heat transfer, buildings can be discretized in a fi-

nite number of temperature points: see Fig. 1. This handout describes
how to formulate heat transfer:

1. Through the envelope components (heat transfer coefficients)

2. Between surfaces (radiative heat transfer)

Figure 1: Discretization of temperatures
3. Between the surfaces and the air volume
in a building

The last section of the handout covers the non-steady situation: how
to formulate the temporal evolution of temperatures under transient
conditions.

Heat transfer coefficients of the envelope

This section covers the calculation of the global heat transfer coef-
ficient H (W.K−1 ) of a single thermal zone, which is defined as the
ratio between the heating or cooling power Φ (W) and the indoor-
outdoor temperature difference (K) is steady state:

Φ = H ( Ti − Te ) (1)

The thermal resistance R (m2 .K.W−1 ) of a single wall component

is the sum of the resistance of its layers, including the surface transfer Figure 2: Total resistance of a multi-
layered component
resistances (Fig. 2):
e
R= ∑ Ri = ∑ λii + Rse + Rsi (2)
i i

The thermal transmittance U (W.m−2 .K−1 ) of this component is the

inverse of the resistance. The heat flow rate ϕ is the amount of heat
flow per unit surface
1
U= (3)
R
ϕ = U ( Ti − Te ) (4)

The total transmittance H (W.K−1 ) of a wall that includes several

components is the sum of their transmittances Ui weighted by their
areas Ai (Fig. 3):
H = U A = ∑ Ui Ai (5) Figure 3: Total transmittance of a multi-
i component wall
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 2

Variable Unit
R Thermal resistance m2 .K.W−1
U Thermal transmittance W.m−2 .K−1
H Heat transfer coefficient W.K−1

If the room at temperature Ti is adjacent to an unheated (or un-

cooled) room at temperature Tu , then the transmittance of the parti-
tion wall can be weighted by a coefficient so that heat transfer is still
written relatively to the indoor-outdoor temperature difference (Fig.
4)
Air infiltration from the outside towards the room results in a heat
transfer coefficient Hinf proportional to the air flow rate ṁ (kg.s−1 )
(Fig. 5). This coefficient can also be expressed using the volumetric
Figure 4: Heat transfer towards an
air flow rate Qv (m3 .h−1 ). unheated room
Hinf = ṁ c a = 0.34 Qv (6)

Radiative heat transfer

Figure 5: Heat transfer from air infiltra-
A surface receiving a radiant flux E (W.m−2 ), or irradiance, will ab- tion
sorb, reflect and transmit it with proportions α, ρ and τ respectively
(Fig. 6).
The solar irradiance received by a surface is the sum of direct,
diffuse and reflected irradiance (Fig. 7). These three terms depend
on the geometry of the building and the position of the sun. The heat
received by the surface Φsol (W) is the amount of absorbed irradiance,
on this area A with an absorption coefficient α:
 
Φsol = α A Edir + Edif + Eref (7)
Figure 6: Division of irradiance received
In order to formulate the radiant heat exchange between several by a surface
surfaces, let us first define three types of heat flux involved in this
calculation:
• A surface at temperature T (K) emits a radiant flux called exitance
or emittance Me (W.m2 ):

Me = εσT 4 (8)

where ε is the emissivity of the surface and σ = 5.67 × 10−8 Figure 7: Solar heat flux received by a
W.m−2 .K−4 is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. surface

• The radiosity of the surface is the total radiant flux leaving it. It is
the sum of the exitance, and of the reflected part of the irradiance
E received by the surface.

Je = Me + ρ E (9)
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 3

• The net heat flux Φnet of the surface is the difference between
the total radiant flux it receives, and the radiant flux it emits. It
is positive is the surface is warmer than its surroundings, and
negative if it is colder.

Solving the problem of radiative heat transfer between walls

means calculating the temperatures and heat flux of each one (Fig.
Figure 8: Radiative exchange between
8). It requires knowing either the temperature or the flux of each one, walls
and solving for the unknown variables. We start by writing one of
the following two equations for each surface i, in order to express its
radiosity Ji as a function of the radiosity of all other surfaces Jj and
the view factors Fij between them.

• If the temperature Ti of a surface is known, we can write:

n
Ji = ε i σTi4 + ρi ∑ Jj Fij (10)
j =1

• If the net heat flux Φi of a surface is known:

n
Φi
= Ji − ∑ Jj Fij (11)
Si j =1

This results in a linear system of equations which we can solve for

all the radiosities. Finally, the unknown temperature or heat flux of
each surface can be obtained from its radiosity:
Φi εi  4 
= σTi − Ji (12)
Si 1 − εi
A simplified way of calculating radiative heat exchange between
two surfaces 1 and 2 is to formulate it through a coefficient of heat
transfer hr :

Φrad = hr A ( T1 − T2 ) (13)
 
hr = ε F12 σ T12 + T22 ( T1 + T2 ) (14)

Radiant and operative temperatures

The mean radiant temperature inside an enclosure is the tempera-

ture of a body which would only exchange heat through radiative
exchange with its surrounding surfaces:
!1/4
Tmr = ∑ Fi ε i Ti4 (15)
i

where Fi is the view factor from the body to each of the surrounding
walls.
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 4

The operative temperature describes the combined effects of con-

vective and radiant heat transfer. It is often used to formulate com-
fort inside a thermal zone if the air temperature is different from the
wall temperatures.
hc Ta + hr Tmr
Top = (16)
h c + hr
where Ta is the air temperature, hc and hr are the convective and
radiative heat transfer coefficients of the body with its surroundings.

Transient heat transfer modelling

All the above equations can be solved in steady-state to calculate

the value of each temperature in the discretization shown on Fig. 1.
In a non-steady state, temperatures can vary: the evolution of each
temperature is caused by an inbalance between the incoming and
outgoing heat flux:
∂T
C = Φin − Φout (17)
∂t
where C (J.K−1 ) is the heat capacitance assigned to this point.
One-dimensional transient heat transfer through a wall of density
ρ, heat capacity c p and conductivity λ, reads:

∂T ∂2 T
ρ cp =λ 2 (18)
∂t ∂x
Let us suppose that the wall is discretized into three temperature
points separated by two elements of thickness ∆x/2, as shown on
Fig. 9. Then the temperature inside the wall can be expressed as
function of the two boundary temperatures, a thermal capacitance
and two thermal resistances: Figure 9: Heat capacity of a wall

∂T T −T T −T
ρ ∆x c p = 1 + 2 (19)
∂t ∆x/2λ ∆x/2λ
A thermal capacitance can be assigned to the temperature point of
an air volume in order to calculate its evolution. As an approxima-
tion, some points of the discretisation may not have a capacitance, if
we consider that they are quick to reach a steady balance with their
surroundings. This is the case for light materials such as windows.
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 5

Exercise 1: single room heat balance

The walls of a room are made of:

• 44 m2 of concrete wall (ec = 15 cm, λc = 2, 3 W/(m.K)) with an

insulation layer (ei = 10 cm, λi = 0.04 W/(m.K))

• 8 m2 of double glazing (Uv = 3.3 W/(m2 .K))

• The indoor heat transfer coefficient is hi = 0.11 (m2 .K)/W, the

outdoor one is he = 0.07 (m2 .K)/W

The room is ventilated with an air change rate of 9 m3 /h.

Calculate the heating power that should be prescribed to maintain
an indoor temperature of 19°C, if the outdoor temperature is 2°C.

Exercise 2: heat balance of two rooms

Consider the following building with two rooms: room 1 is heated,

and room 2 is unheated but its temperature is unknown.

Figure 10: There is air flow from ven-

tilation or infiltration, going from the
outside to the heated room, then to the
unheated room. The effects of the sun
are not considered. The properties of
the construction are listed in the table
below.

• Write one energy balance equation for each room.

• If the outdoor temperature is 9°C and the temperature of room 1

is 19°C, solve the system for the heating power of room 1 and the
temperature of room 2.

What is the solution of the problem if the direction of the air flow
is reversed?
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 6

Exercise 3: greenhouse

A greenhouse is represented by a half-sphere shown on Fig. 11. We

are supposing the following hypotheses:

• The greenhouse has a diameter of 6 m. Figure 11: Exercise 3

• The outdoor temperature Te is 24°C and the solar irradiance Esol is

1000 W/m2 . The sun has an angle of 60° with the floor.

• The glass cover has a temperature Tc . It has a transmission coeffi-

cient of τd = 0.8 for the sunlight, and an emissivity of ε = 0.95 for
the infrared radiation. The thermal resistance of the glass is very
low and can be neglected.

• The convective surface transfer coefficients are: h g = 2.6 W/(m2 .K)

between the ground and the indoor air; hci = 6.1 W/(m2 .K) be-
tween the cover and the indoor air; hce = 16 W/(m2 .K) between
the cover and the outside.

• The ground has an emissivity of 0.9. It is considered adiabatic:

there is no heat loss towards the ground.

Questions:

1. Calculate the view factor Fcg between the glass cover and the
ground. Using the simplified formulas from the lecture, write the
expression of the radiant heat transfer coefficient hr between the
cover and the ground.

2. Draw the diagram of thermal resistances between each tempera-

ture point: Te , Tc , Ti and Tg .

3. Write the system of 3 equations for the unknown variables: Tc , Ti

and Tg .

4. Solve the system to calculate the three temperatures. You may

need to assume the value of hr .
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 7

Exercise 4: radiator

Consider the room shown on Fig. 12:

• The wall S5 (on the left) is a window with a temperature of T5 =

8°C.

• The surface S0 is a radiator covering half the height of the wall on

the right. Its temperature is T0 = 60°C.
Figure 12: Exercise 4
• The surface S2 (the ground) is adiabatic.

• All other surfaces have a temperature of T = 20°C.

Calculate the radiative heat loss through the window, the net heat
flux given by the radiator and the temperature of the ground. The
emission coefficient of all surfaces is ε = 0.85.
Calculate an approximation of the mean radiant temperature and
the operative temperature in the middle of the room.
The full formulas for the view factors are below (difficult)

Figure 13: View factors between two

planes in the most common situations
 building energy performance 1 - heat transfer in buildings 8

Exercise 5: thermal inertia

We represent a building with a single thermal resistance R (from the

global heat transfer coefficient) and a single heat capacitance C: see
Fig. 14. A heating power Φ is imposed on the indoor temperature.
The evolution of the indoor temperature is thus driven by the differ- Figure 14: Exercise 5: thermal inertia
ential equation:
∂T 1
C = ( Te − Ti ) + Φ (20)
∂t R
Question 1: winter conditions
We suppose that the building is initially at the same temperature
Te as the outside. The heating is then turned on at a constant power
Φ.

1. Solve equation 20 to show that the evolution of the indoor temper-

ature is:   
t
Ti = Te + R Φ 1 − exp − (21)
RC

2. Draw the evolution of Ti . How does this graph change with differ-
ent values of R and C?

Question 2: summer conditions

We now suppose that the outdoor temperature is a sine wave (see
Fig. 15). There is no heating: Φ = 0. The outdoor temperature varies Figure 15: Summer temperature
between 10°C and 30°C, with a period of 24h.

Te = 20 + 10 sin(ω t) (22)
2π
ω= (23)
24 × 3600
We can show that the complex impedance of the building is:

Ti 1
Z ( jω ) = = (24)
Te 1 + jRCω

Draw the evolution of Ti . How does this graph change with different
values of R and C?