Quote:
Originally Posted by josh white
But thermal mass is a good thing. It keeps heat in in the winter and keeps heat out in the summer, thereby reducing energy use. Lower thermal mass more closely resembles the outside temperature. So if it is hot you need A/C, cold outside you need more heating.
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you are right, partially. In a climate such as a desert, you want thermal mass in the building to absorb heat during the day, and will keep a building warm at night when it gets cold outside. In a climate like Calgary where the temperature varies a lot, thermal mass makes it difficult to heat or cool the building when the temperature shifts. My apartment building for example, is 8 storeys of concrete. During the winter, the floors and walls lose a lot of their energy and are perpetually cold, no matter how high I turn up the heat. During the summer when it is hot, the concrete absorbs and holds the heat, so the building is perpetually warm, no matter how cool it gets at night, the building is still warm in the morning. Basically thermal mass increases cooling loads in the summer, and increases heating loads in the winter.