Numerical calculation of heat losses for crawl space foundation at different locations in Sweden

Abstract

Crawl space is one of the most common foundation types in Sweden, and over five hundred thousand family houses have this type of foundation. This study determines how the heat losses variate at six different locations in Sweden from the south to the north. The average heat for a year varied between 1.76 and 3.07 ​W/m2. The maximum heat flux was 4.43 ​W/m2 in Kiruna, while Falsterbo has a maximum heat flux of 3.18 ​W/m2. Minimum heat flux varied between 0.43 and 1.38 ​W/m2. A sensitivity study of the important parameter showed that the temperature is the most important parameter with a decrease in average heat flux of 0.15 ​W/m2 per degree increase in air temperature. Snow depth and snow days are less sensitive and give less than a 2.3% decrease for the average heat flux with a variation of ±50% and ±20 days, respectively.

Keywords

• Crawl space
• Heat losses
• Foundation