A Parametric Study: Impact of Thermal Mass on Summer Overheating for Residential Buildings in Germany
Abstract
Rising average temperatures and the increasing frequency of heatwaves as a result of climate change make effective passive measures for indoor overheating mitigation urgently needed. This paper evaluates the future thermal performance of 2,880 building variants, focusing on material- and design-related parameters, using climate data sets intended to represent future conditions. The study shows that future climate datasets (TRY- 45) for all three summer climate regions in Germany only represent current summer conditions, emphasizing the need for additional climate data to simulate future scenarios. Based on the parametric simulation outputs, the statistical analysis suggests that window-to-floor ratio, sun shading, and thermal mass of exterior walls have the greatest impact on overheating hours in residential buildings. The assessment of a reduced set of variants that comply with both thermal and visual comfort indicates that façade configurations with medium- and high bulk density materials offer a larger degree of design freedom for window sizing than lightweight configurations.