Search

• Two model buildings are specially built for comparative study. • Dynamic monitoring of external insulation for improving thermal environment and energy saving during heating. • The time for EPS building to approach the air temperature set value has no obvious advantage. • The energy saving effect of short-time heating operation of EPS building is very weak. • A dynamic index is proposed to evaluate the improvement effect of external insulation on indoor thermal environment. In this paper, two identical model buildings were built, one of which adopted 38 mm Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) board as the external insulation. Under the same heating set-point temperature, the dynamic change process of indoor thermal environment and heating energy consumption of EPS insulation building and non-insulation Reference building was compared and monitored. Results show that under the same heating set-point temperature, the indoor temperature of the two buildings can quickly approach the set value in about 20 min. However, the temperature rise of the internal surface of the wall lags behind. After several hours, the advantage of the temperature rise of the internal surface of the EPS building gradually appeared. The energy consumption of the two buildings is similar in the initial heating period of 20 min, and the energy saving rate of EPS building increases slowly with the increase of the heating duration. The energy saving rate is about 1%–26% in the range of 0.5–8 h intermittent heating in hot summer and cold winter zone. The change curve of cumulative temperature rise ratio with heating time is proposed to evaluate the dynamic improvement effect of external insulation on indoor thermal environment. This research provides a reference basis for the development of energy conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]