Thermographic study on thermal performance of rural houses in southwest China

The thermal performance assessments of rural houses are often inaccurate by thermal calculation or simulation due to complicated micro climates of rural settlements and the informal processes of self-built structures. Infrared (IR) thermography is an effective and efficient tool to evaluate building and material performance. This study aims to show the possibilities of using IR imaging to better understand the thermal process of rural houses. Several typical rural houses with different kinds of building envelopes in the Southwest of China were selected. A series of thermographs were taken under various circumstances, including different seasons, time periods and weather conditions. Continuous outdoor and indoor air temperature measurements were conducted simultaneously. The results show that the correlationship between envelope surface temperature distributions and air temperature variations of adjoining rooms, as well as the heat gaining and losing processes of different building envelopes.