Impact of Floor- Ground Coupling and Thermal Mass on Seasonal Heating Energy Use in Single - Storey Residential Buildings in a Temperate Climate
creator: Staszczuk, Anna
creator: Gortych, Marta
subject: residential buildings
creator: Kuczyński, Tadeusz
rights: Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego
description: This study presents an empirical evaluation of winter heating performance in two full-scale single-storey residential buildings located in a temperate transitional climate in western Poland. The buildings, identical in geometry, layout, and insulation levels, differed in wall thermal mass and subfloor configuration. During the 2018/2019 heating season, the building with medium-weight masonry walls consumed 3.6% less heating energy than its lightweight timber-frame counterpart. In the following season, floor insulation was removed in the masonry building to enable direct ground coupling.
subject: experimental monitoring
issued: 2026
subject: subsoil heat
language: eng
description: tytuł dodatkowy: Prace z Inżynierii Lądowej i Środowiska
description: While this led to a 12.2% increase in total energy use, the difference emerged only in the latter part of the winter. Continuous ground temperature monitoring confirmed that subsoil heat retained from summer acted as a thermal buffer, delaying the onset of increased losses. The actual energy penalty was substantially lower than predicted by standard calculation methods, indicating that steady-state models may overestimate seasonal ground-related losses. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of heat exchange between buildings and the ground and support the use of mass-based and soil-coupled envelope strategies as effective tools for improving seasonal energy efficiency and resilience in temperate climates increasingly affected by climate variability and power supply risks.
date: 2026
source: Civil and Environmental Engineering Reports (CEER), no 36, vol. 1
format: application/pdf
rights: CC 4.0
subject: winter heating demand
publisher: Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego
subject: energy performance
contributor: Kuczyński, Tadeusz - red.
subject: thermal mass
subject: ground coupling
type: artykuł