A perforated heat flux plate for building measurements: calibration, in-situ performance and simulation

Overview & Synopsis

A perforated heat flux plate for building use is presented and compared with traditional full surface plates. Laboratory calibration tests using a guarded hot plate apparatus showed that the performance of the new perforated CAPTEC® plate is comparable to a solid, standard plate. However, in-situ tests with surface-mounted sensors in a building wall indicated that the CAPTEC® plates were reliable but their poor thermal contact and the edge effects in the perforations lead to an offset factor for the output voltage. The presence of perforations did not lead to any significantly improved measure due to evaporation or condensation on the wall. A basic simulation was performed to show the edge effects caused by the perforations and an experimental correction factor for the field measurements is proposed.