LAUSR

Abstract Conduction heat transfer through building construction elements is one of the main components of space heating and cooling loads, and, thus, one of the key aspects when planning sustainable energy designs in the building sector. The Response Factors (RF) method sets the base for related dynamic calculations implemented by most well-known Building Energy Simulation (BES) software, and it represents a research topic of present interest. In this regard, this work introduces a new method for calculating conduction Response Factors in building multilayer constructions, based on the definition of an approximated wall model through Frequency–Domain Spline Interpolation (FDSI) and asymptotic analysis. Its conceptual development as well as first validations comparing with existing methods from previous literature are presented. Finally, as a result of applying a table-lookup approach and the possibility of pre-calculating most of the involved operations, an accurate, fast and easy-to-code algorithm is obtained, which constitutes a promising alternative to improve the current state-of-art calculation procedures.