Back كتلة حرارية Arabic Masa térmica Spanish Soojusmass Estonian ذخیره حرارتی Persian Inertie thermique French Inerzia termica Italian Термальная масса Russian Isıl kütle Turkish
In building design, thermal mass is a property of the matter of a building that requires a flow of heat in order for it to change temperature.
Not all writers agree on what physical property of matter "thermal mass" describes. Most writers use it as a synonym for heat capacity, the ability of a body to store thermal energy. It is typically referred to by the symbol Cth, and its SI unit is J/K or J/°C (which are equivalent).
However:
- Christoph Reinhart at MIT describes thermal mass as its volume times its volumetric heat capacity. [1]
- Randa Ghattas, Franz-Joseph Ulm and Alison Ledwith, also at MIT, write that "It [thermal mass] is dependent on the relationship between the specific heat capacity, density, thickness and conductivity of a material" [2] although they don't provide a unit, describing materials only as "low" or "high" thermal mass.
- Chris Reardon equates thermal mass with volumetric heat capacity . [3]
The lack of a consistent definition of what property of matter thermal mass describes has led some writers to dismiss its use in building design as pseudoscience.[4][5][6]
- ^ "4.401/4.464 Environmental Technologies in Buildings" (PDF).
- ^ "Mapping Thermal Mass Benefit" (PDF).
- ^ "Thermal mass | YourHome".
- ^ "Thermal Mass and the Warming Climate". GreenBuildingAdvisor. 2022-07-21. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
- ^ "Sizing HVAC System for ICF House". GreenBuildingAdvisor. 2022-07-17. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
- ^ "Concrete, Thermal Mass, and Stable Ground Temps". GreenBuildingAdvisor. 2024-11-25. Retrieved 2024-12-05.