Thermal Bridge Analysis for the PHPP

Passive House Conference 2009

PH Consultant Session
Urbana, October 15

Revised Nov 29 2009

David White, Right Environments

david@rightenvironments.com

Overview: Overall Method for Envelope Analysis

1. Analyze the envelope component areas & U-values using outside dimensions.
Areas go in the Areas tab and U-values go in the U-Values tab. This is
called the simplified method.
2. Examine the thermal bridges at the intersections between component areas.
Based on best judgment, decide whether or not the bridge is a significant
extra heat loss (or may win back significant heat relative to the simplified
method in step 1).
3. If the bridge is not significant (less than 0.01 W/mK), dont bother to calculate
it. If it is significant, you can account for it by taking a value from a catalog of
thermal bridges or doing your own 2D calculation. Input the thermal bridges in
the areas tab of the PHPP.
4. PHPP calculates total envelope loss as the sum of component area losses
and bridge linear losses.

This workshop includes:

Key Concepts
Calculation Guidelines
Tutorial with THERM and Excel

It does not include:

Dynamic analysis methods

Key Concepts

Key Concepts

Component Areas and Intersections

Key Concepts

roof
wall

wall

slab edge

slab center
slab perimeter

Components

Key Concepts

roof
wall

wall

slab edge

slab center
slab perimeter

Intersections

Key Concepts

Intersections Note: taking windows from NFRC to PHPP has two problems: 1) physics
of ISO vs. NFRC and 2) NFRC has one combined value for glass, frame, and spacer.
Check my website for window inputs calculation method coming in time.

Key Concepts

Thermal bridging typically means that the heat gets a short cut across the envelope.

Key Concepts

Thermal Bridges
wall to slab (can be a big one!)
wall to roof
wall to wall
glass to frame (spacer in WinType)
frame to wall (installation in WinType)
etc

In PHPP, whether or not the heat gets a short cut, a thermal bridge coefficient can be
applied any place where heat flow cant be accurately calculated using the simplified
method, i.e. an intersection!

Key Concepts

(W/K per meter

into the page)

=
(W/K per meter
into the page)

(W/K per meter

into the page)

Key understanding: the thermal bridge is the extra heat loss associated with the
intersection. This means that the thermal bridge loss is the total loss from 2D analysis
minus the loss calculated for that same section using the simplified method.

Key Concepts

For component heat loss, use simple

parallel heat transfer calculation in PHPP.

Key Concepts

Details for Passive Houses

For thermal bridge heat loss, either reference a calculation done by others...

Key Concepts of Thermal Bridges

...or do it yourself, for instance using THERM.

Key Concepts

Thermal bridges must be specific to

ambient, ground, or perimeter.

Key Concepts

Ambient no ground
interactions

Ground bridge is in
contact with ground, far
from grade. Do not
include ground or
exterior air film in model.

Perimeter partly
above, partly below
grade. Special!

Calculation Guidelines

Calculation Guidelines

R-0.45

R-0.74

R-1.14

R-0.22

R-0.97

Schneiders, Protocol 16: Thermal Bridge Free Construction, PHI, January 2008

Surface Film Coefficients

Calculation Guidelines

IP units

METRIC units

Surface Film Coefficients from ASHRAE Fundamentals

PS: I used some incorrect surface coefficients during the tutorial!!!!! sorry!

Calculation Guidelines

Schneiders

EN 10211-1 recommends straight sections extend 1m clear (consistent construction)

Rule of thumb: 4x wall thickness (although for PH this can be 6 feet!)
Beware: adiabatic boundary will force isotherms to be parallel! Red herring!
Above example is for a simple detail higher fluxes may need longer straight sections
Too long can cause inaccuracy through rounding errors (?)
When in doubt, test it at various lengths (as above)

Calculation Guidelines

Useful hint: when applicable, put adiabatic boundary at a line of symmetry!

Calculation Guidelines

Perimeter Insulation is included in ground sheet calculations and in thermal bridge

calculations (I think).

Calculation Guidelines

Outdoor temp,
e.g. 13F for NYC

Indoor temp, e.g. 68F

Adiabatic

2.5m?

Average of Indoor and Outdoor

temp, e.g. 40.5F

2.5m

1.0m

This is how to model a perimeter thermal bridge! (from Schnieders 2008). The
indoor/outdoor temps are arbitrary in terms of of calculating psi. The specific temps
used here are useful because they also tell us something about condensation risk.

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Thermal bridge analysis: not just for masochists anymore!

Wall

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Slab

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Draw detail in THERM (to save time, it is pre-drawn for the tutorial).
Assign boundary conditions and U-factor tags.

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

adiabatic

outdoor temp with

outdoor temp with
rain screen
exterior resistance
(R-0.45)
(R-0.17)

indoor temp, vertical

surface film (R-0.68)
indoor temp, inside corner film
(R-1.14) for 8 inches or so
indoor temp, downward
flow film (R-0.92)

adiabatic

adiabatic

half way between

indoor and outdoor
temp, no air film

Note: U-factor tags are drawn in red along interior surface. The U-factor tags can go anywhere as
long as they mark one gate through which all heat flow passes so THERM can measure the flow.
Note: German and US air film values differ slightly, so there are a few discrepancies w/ slide #18

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Set error tolerances and max iterations Then run it. Manual (7.3.2) warns of accumulated
rounding errors below 5% Maximum Error Energy Norm. Software author says 5% is ok.

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Set up calculation sheet on PHPP

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Calculate heat loss of straight sections by one of the following methods:

simulate straight section on THERM (more accurate, but how much more?)
use PHPP calculation (faster)

Tutorial with THERM and Excel

Subtract 1D losses from 2D losses. Be careful to assign the correct temperature difference to each
component. Divide the net loss by the deltaT to ambient (not ground) because PHPP asks for
perimeter thermal bridges with respect to outdoor temperature. The result is the -value.

Thank you for your kind attention