Simple Modelling Procedure for the Indoor Thermal Environment of Highly Insulated Buildings Heated by Wood Stoves

Abstract

Space heating using wood stoves is a popular solution in many European countries. The nominal power of the state-of-the-art stoves is oversized compared to the needs of highly insulated buildings, leading to a risk of overheating. A modelling procedure is here developed in order to investigate the indoor thermal environment generated by wood stoves in such buildings. This procedure is kept simple to perform all-year detailed dynamic simulations (e.g. using TRNSYS) at an acceptable computational cost. A specific experimental set-up has been developed for validation, essentially regarding the interaction between the stove and the building. The largest source of error appears to be the thermal stratification in the room where the stove is placed. The experiments prove that the model gives a fair insight into the global thermal comfort. Therefore, it is possible to investigate the conditions required for a stove to be properly integrated in a highly insulated building.