Experimental assessment of moisture buffering “active” devices for indoor humidity control

Abstract

A high thermal resistance and air tightness of the building envelope risk to create great internal moisture load with consequences for durability of materials and inhabitants’ comfort and health. The passive solution here proposed is a moisture buffering “active” device (MB-AD), to be integrated in the building envelope, which is able to measure the RH indoors and react by increasing the MB ability of a material forcing the passage of air inside it. The hygrothermal performance of the device has been experimentally tested and results showed that the Moisture Buffering Value measured in the “active” device increased until 29% more than the “passive” one.