1 Thermal Parameters Measurements of High-Rise Building Envelope Ricciu Roberto * , Besalduch Luigi A., Desogus Giuseppe Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture University of Cagliari e-mail: ricciu@unica.it; besalduch@unica.it; gdesogus@unica.it Galatioto Alessandra Dipartimento dell’Energia dell’Ingegneria dell’informazione e dei Modelli matematici University of Palermo E−mail: alessandra.galatioto@unipa.it ABSTRACT In buildings, to ensure the thermal comfort of the occupants and to keep the energy consumption as low as possible, a correct design of the thermal system is necessary. To do so, an appropriate determination of the thermo-physical properties of the wall materials is needed, particularly; new light-weight building technologies are widely used in the construction of the building envelope. One of these parameters, particularly important in Mediterranean climatic dynamic conditions is the heat capacity, due to the presence of the sun’s energy contribution in hot and cold seasons. The value of the heat capacity in such like materials is typically quite different from the declared parameter, obtained in laboratory tests. To solve this problem, the authors propose a simple method for the evaluation of the specific heat capacity of the thermal properties of real scale building materials. KEYWORDS Lightweight walls, Specific heat capacity, Thermal transmittance, High-Rise Building, Cellulose loose-fill INTRODUCTION Lightweight materials are interesting technology for building envelopes. Advantages of the use of these materials are prompt construction, better quality, due to the industrial erection of the building, and good thermal properties, acoustic performance and durability. In addition, they can solve constructive problems and can help to reduce the production of wastes during the rise of the building. However, their performance in the Mediterranean climate is far from being completely established. Their thermal behaviour, and consequently how much energy dissipated to maintain the thermal comfort [1, 2], depends on three parameters, namely:(temperature, relative humidity, air velocity) depending on the level of Heat, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, and one (mean radiant temperature) depends on the thermo physical properties of the wall materials. Therefore, in stationary conditions, the most effective property is the thermal resistance [3], whereas in dynamic conditions the most effective properties are the specific * ricciu@unica.it 0207-1