ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Impact of Floor - Ground Coupling and Thermal Mass on Seasonal Heating Energy Use in Single - Storey Residential Buildings in a Temperate Climate
1
Institute of Environmental Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland
2
Institute of Civil Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland
Submission date: 2025-10-23
Final revision date: 2025-12-16
Acceptance date: 2026-01-05
Online publication date: 2026-01-26
Publication date: 2026-01-26
Corresponding author
Marta Gortych
Institute of Environmental Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Profesora Zygmunta Szafrana 15, 65-417, Zielona Góra, Poland
Institute of Environmental Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Profesora Zygmunta Szafrana 15, 65-417, Zielona Góra, Poland
Civil and Environmental Engineering Reports 2026;36(1):1-20
KEYWORDS
winter heating demandenergy performanceground couplingsubsoil heatthermal massresidential buildingsexperimental monitoring
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
This study presents an empirical evaluation of winter heating performance in two full-scale single-storey residential buildings located in a temperate transitional climate in western Poland. The buildings, identical in geometry, layout, and insulation levels, differed in wall thermal mass and subfloor configuration. During the 2018/2019 heating season, the building with medium-weight masonry walls consumed 3.6% less heating energy than its lightweight timber-frame counterpart. In the following season, floor insulation was removed in the masonry building to enable direct ground coupling. While this led to a 12.2% increase in total energy use, the difference emerged only in the latter part of the winter. Continuous ground temperature monitoring confirmed that subsoil heat retained from summer acted as a thermal buffer, delaying the onset of increased losses. The actual energy penalty was substantially lower than predicted by standard calculation methods, indicating that steady-state models may overestimate seasonal ground-related losses. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of heat exchange between buildings and the ground and support the use of mass-based and soil-coupled envelope strategies as effective tools for improving seasonal energy efficiency and resilience in temperate climates increasingly affected by climate variability and power supply risks.
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