Coupled Heat and Moisture Transfer in Residential Air-Conditioned Buildings

In this paper, a model for predicting whole building heat and moisture transfer was presented. Both heat and moisture transfer in the building envelope and indoor air were simultaneously considered; their interactions were modeled. The coupled model takes into account the main hygrothermal effects, like moisture sources and sinks inside the room, moisture transfer through the envelope, vapor sorption-desorption at the exterior and interior wall surfaces, heat sources and sinks inside the room, heat input from the envelope, the solar energy input through walls and windows, and hygrothermal sources or sinks due to the air-conditioning system. The new model was implemented in MATLAB-Simulink, and was validated by using a series of testing and validation tools.