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Interior thermal insulation is frequently one of the only possible solutions for thermal upgrade of the building envelope where the external appearance cannot be changed. In this study, four insulation materials were used in a case study in a historical school building in in situ test walls. The indoor climate in the test room was controlled to simulate the typical dwelling with high moisture load. The temperatures, relative humidity, and heat flows were monitored over 9 months to analyze the hygrothermal performance of four different insulation materials. The hygrothermal performance of insulation materials during drying and wetting periods are presented. Moisture test reference year was used in working out possible energy-renovation solutions. The results show that timing of the renovation works is a matter of consideration to avoid the hygrothermal risks inside the renovated wall assemblies. The results show that in all the cases, thermal comfort can be improved by increasing the inner surface temperature and decreasing thermal conductivity. However, in some cases, the risks of mold growth and interstitial condensation were present inside the retrofitted wall assemblies. Computer simulations of the wall assemblies with moisture reference years under different humidity loads concluded that all solutions are suitable for future analysis.

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Renovation of old apartment buildings is a topic of current research interest throughout the Eastern Europe region where similar typology is derived from the period of 1960–1990. Thermal bridges, essential components of the transmission heat loss of a building, have to be properly evaluated in the energy audit during current state-of-the-art situation as well as in the comparison of renovation solutions. Resulting from field measurements and calculations, we propose linear thermal transmittances Ψ of thermal bridges for four types of apartment buildings: prefabricated concrete large panel element, brick, wood (log), and autoclaved aerated concrete. Our results show that thermal bridges contribute 23% of the total transmission heat loss of a building envelope before renovation. After renovation thermal bridges ac­count for only 10% if windows are repositioned into additional external thermal insulation and balconies are rebuilt as best practice. Inversely, impact of the thermal bridges might be up to 34%, depending on the wall insulation thickness. We have also found that the relative percentage of thermal bridges after renovation increases and the negative impact of the thermal bridges of certain junctions cannot be compensated with thicker wall insulation. Results obtained in this paper are useful for energy audits.

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