Thermal bridge assessments

Thermal bridge (cold bridge) assessment is becoming more important for two reasons: firstly, as legislation and energy awareness lead to increased insulation levels, so losses due to cold bridging form an increasing fraction of building heat losses; and secondly, condensation and mould growth are increasingly a focus for environmental health concern. This paper describes two recent developments aimed at improving thermal bridge assessment. The first is the EUROKOBRA thermal bridge atlas, which was developed with the aim of giving designers an easy to use, flexible, assessment, tool. The second is an extension of the detailed dynamic simulation program ESP-r to 3-D conduction capability, allowing the possibility of thermal bridge assessment within a complete building model.