Why is it so hot in my house in the summer?
If the winter comfort is appreciated thanks to a good thermal resistance of the walls, the comfort of summer is for its part determined by a good general inertia of the building. Thermal inertia is the ability of materials to retain calories, in other words, to store heat. The denser the material, the higher its thermal capacity.
This is the reason why stone houses enjoy a relative coolness in summer. The stone can retain a significant amount of calories. On the other hand, it is not the ideal insulator. At first glance, the relationship between conductivity and heat capacity may seem contradictory. But to understand the phenomena in terms of comfort, we must keep in mind that in their most extreme configuration, the summer is an alternation of canicular days and relatively cool nights while winter is a continuum of cold days and nights. This is where the concept of phase shift comes into play.
Expressed in hours (h) for a determined thickness of material, the phase shift is the time it takes for a material to reach the temperature of its environment. The 12 hours of sunshine on a summer day is not enough to saturate a 50 cm stone wall with calorie. Night falls and the wall cools down. The feeling of freshness reigns in the house. In winter, the stone, as an inefficient insulant, loses continuously the heat produced by the heater.
It is well understood that it is the summer where the phase shift is of interest. A 12-hour phase shift will allow the wall to retain calories until nightfall. The choice of material is therefore decisive. To obtain a good comfort during winter as in the summer, an insulant should have a good resistance along with a good thermal capacity.
State of Art Concept
This construction system allows to implement thermal bridging free wooden structure which ensures the maximum thermal insulation efficiency.
High Thermal Performance
The energy performance of this construction system is validated by an engineering office as passive house standard.