Numerical validation of a simplified design procedure for calculating the heating load in buildings with Breathing Wall components

Breathing Walls (BWs) can provide significant building energy saving in winter conditions, but the present standard methodology for heating load calculation fails to consider this technology, thus limiting its application. In this paper, a procedure to include BWs in the EN 12831-1:2017 is then proposed. The methodology is tested against a numerical calculation of the heating load based on the coupling between the Building Energy Simulation (BES) engine TRNSYS and a Matlab Finite Difference Model (FDM) addressing heat and mass transfer across the BW. The very good agreement demonstrates that the BW can be syntethized by two key parameters, namely the effective thermal transmittance at the interior surface and the thermal recovery efficiency.