This lecture explains the summer heat protection verification methods prescribed by DIN 4108-2:2013-02. Specifically, this refers to the solar transmittance analysis method and, alternatively, to the dynamic room temperature simulation method.

These approaches profile the essential factors of influence on summertime user comfort, including fenestration, shading and the energy permeability of glazing. The presentation focuses on how these factors can best be implemented in combination with modern clay masonry. High-mass construction, for example – including the use of modern lightweight vertically perforated clay units – can be demonstrably standards-compliant, with favourable consequences for summer heat protection.

In cases where verification according to the STA method is unsuccessful, e.g., when the building has a high proportion of windows and an accordingly high level of permeability for insolation, dynamic simulation can provide a calculatory assessment of the permissible number of thermal excursion degree hours. A pertinent example in the form of a domestic building is presented.

Maik Sulze, Material Research and Testing Institute at

Bauhaus University of  Weimar