IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i21p7025-d665528.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Indoor Thermal Environment Challenges of Light Steel Framing in the Southern European Context

Author

Listed:
  • Eduardo Roque

    (RISCO—Aveiro Research Centre of Risks and Sustainability in Construction, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal)

  • Romeu Vicente

    (RISCO—Aveiro Research Centre of Risks and Sustainability in Construction, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal)

  • Ricardo M. S. F. Almeida

    (Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, School of Technology and Management, Department of Civil Engineering, Campus Politécnico de Repeses, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal
    CONSTRUCT-LFC, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

Over the past decades, Southern European residential architecture has been typically associated with heavyweight hollow brick masonry and reinforced concrete construction systems; however, more industrialised alternative systems have been gaining a significant market share, such as the light steel framing (LSF). Regardless of the proliferation of LSF buildings, a lack of experimental research studies have been performed on this construction system in terms of the indoor thermal environment and thermal comfort in the Southern European climate context. Moreover, a research gap also exists regarding experimental comparisons with typical brick masonry buildings. The present study focused on this research gap by characterising and comparing the performance of these two construction systems. A long-term experimental campaign was carried out, involving the construction and monitoring of two identical test cells, differing only by construction system. The test cells were located in Portugal and were monitored over an entire year. The results revealed that the LSF experimental test cell presented higher daily indoor air temperature fluctuations, leading to more extreme maximum and minimum values, closely following the outdoor dry bulb temperature variations. The more responsive behaviour was also reflected in the indoor thermal comfort analysis, with the LSF cell presenting slightly worse performance; however, some advantages were also observed regarding the LSF construction system, which could provide benefits during intermittent residential occupation, especially in mild climates, in which overheating is not a major concern.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduardo Roque & Romeu Vicente & Ricardo M. S. F. Almeida, 2021. "Indoor Thermal Environment Challenges of Light Steel Framing in the Southern European Context," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:7025-:d:665528
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7025/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7025/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stazi, Francesca & Tomassoni, Elisa & Bonfigli, Cecilia & Di Perna, Costanzo, 2014. "Energy, comfort and environmental assessment of different building envelope techniques in a Mediterranean climate with a hot dry summer," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 176-196.
    2. Ormandy, David & Ezratty, Véronique, 2012. "Health and thermal comfort: From WHO guidance to housing strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 116-121.
    3. Ioannis Atsonios & Ioannis Mandilaras & Maria Founti, 2019. "Thermal Assessment of a Novel Drywall System Insulated with VIPs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Victor Lohmann & Paulo Santos, 2020. "Trombe Wall Thermal Behavior and Energy Efficiency of a Light Steel Frame Compartment: Experimental and Numerical Assessments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, May.
    5. Verbeke, Stijn & Audenaert, Amaryllis, 2018. "Thermal inertia in buildings: A review of impacts across climate and building use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2300-2318.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. João M. P. Q. Delgado & Ana S. Guimarães & João Poças Martins & Diogo F. R. Parracho & Sara S. Freitas & António G. B. Lima & Leonardo Rodrigues, 2023. "BIM and BEM Interoperability–Evaluation of a Case Study in Modular Wooden Housing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-21, February.
    2. Eduardo Roque & Romeu Vicente & Ricardo M. S. F. Almeida & Victor M. Ferreira, 2022. "The Impact of Thermal Inertia on the Indoor Thermal Environment of Light Steel Framing Constructions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Domagoj Tkalčić & Bojan Milovanović & Mergim Gaši & Marija Jelčić Rukavina & Ivana Banjad Pečur, 2023. "Optimization of Thermal Bridges Effect of Composite Lightweight Panels with Integrated Steel Load-Bearing Structure," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-24, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eduardo Roque & Romeu Vicente & Ricardo M. S. F. Almeida & Victor M. Ferreira, 2022. "The Impact of Thermal Inertia on the Indoor Thermal Environment of Light Steel Framing Constructions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Avendaño-Vera, Constanza & Martinez-Soto, Aner & Marincioni, Valentina, 2020. "Determination of optimal thermal inertia of building materials for housing in different Chilean climate zones," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Gupta, V. & Deb, C., 2023. "Envelope design for low-energy buildings in the tropics: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    4. Guo, Yurun & Wang, Shugang & Wang, Jihong & Zhang, Tengfei & Ma, Zhenjun & Jiang, Shuang, 2024. "Key district heating technologies for building energy flexibility: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    5. Daniela D’Alessandro & Andrea Rebecchi & Letizia Appolloni & Andrea Brambilla & Silvio Brusaferro & Maddalena Buffoli & Maurizio Carta & Alessandra Casuccio & Liliana Coppola & Maria Vittoria Corazza , 2023. "Re-Thinking the Environment, Cities, and Living Spaces for Public Health Purposes, According with the COVID-19 Lesson: The LVII Erice Charter," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Burlinson, Andrew & Giulietti, Monica & Law, Cherry & Liu, Hui-Hsuan, 2021. "Fuel poverty and financial distress," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    7. Leccese, Francesco & Salvadori, Giacomo & Asdrubali, Francesco & Gori, Paola, 2018. "Passive thermal behaviour of buildings: Performance of external multi-layered walls and influence of internal walls," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 1078-1089.
    8. Wang, Y. & Mauree, D. & Sun, Q. & Lin, H. & Scartezzini, J.L. & Wennersten, R., 2020. "A review of approaches to low-carbon transition of high-rise residential buildings in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    9. He, Ke-Lun & Chen, Qun & Ma, Huan & Zhao, Tian & Hao, Jun-Hong, 2020. "An isomorphic multi-energy flow modeling for integrated power and thermal system considering nonlinear heat transfer constraint," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    10. Baglivo, Cristina & Congedo, Paolo Maria & D'Agostino, Delia & Zacà, Ilaria, 2015. "Cost-optimal analysis and technical comparison between standard and high efficient mono-residential buildings in a warm climate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 560-575.
    11. Leila Luttenberger Marić & Hrvoje Keko & Marko Delimar, 2022. "The Role of Local Aggregator in Delivering Energy Savings to Household Consumers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-27, April.
    12. Mara Hammerle & Paul J. Burke, 2022. "Solar PV and energy poverty in Australia's residential sector," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(4), pages 822-841, October.
    13. Rodrigues, Eugénio & Fernandes, Marco S. & Gaspar, Adélio Rodrigues & Gomes, Álvaro & Costa, José J., 2019. "Thermal transmittance effect on energy consumption of Mediterranean buildings with different thermal mass," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Jakub Sokołowski & Jan Frankowski & Piotr Lewandowski, 2024. "Energy poverty, housing conditions, and self-assessed health: evidence from Poland," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(9), pages 2325-2354, October.
    15. Chau, C.K. & Xu, J.M. & Leung, T.M. & Ng, W.Y., 2017. "Evaluation of the impacts of end-of-life management strategies for deconstruction of a high-rise concrete framed office building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1595-1603.
    16. Buratti, C. & Palladino, D. & Ricciardi, P., 2016. "Application of a new 13-value thermal comfort scale to moderate environments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 859-866.
    17. Taleghani, Mohammad & Tenpierik, Martin & Kurvers, Stanley & van den Dobbelsteen, Andy, 2013. "A review into thermal comfort in buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 201-215.
    18. Przemysław Miąsik & Joanna Krasoń, 2021. "Thermal Efficiency of Trombe Wall in the South Facade of a Frame Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-23, January.
    19. Sun, Chunhua & Liu, Yiting & Cao, Shanshan & Chen, Jiali & Xia, Guoqiang & Wu, Xiangdong, 2022. "Identification of control regularity of heating stations based on cross-correlation function dynamic time delay method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    20. Picchio, Matteo & van Ours, Jan C., 2024. "The impact of high temperatures on performance in work-related activities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:7025-:d:665528. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.