Cost-Effective Hot Box Apparatus to Measure Thermal Performance of Building Envelopes

A hot bot apparatus is an enclosure system used to test the thermal performance of different items when exposed to controlled laboratory conditions for a period of time. Typically, testing building components are performed using hot box apparatus following the ASTM C1363 standard. However, performing such tests in accordance with the standards by an accredited laboratory can be extremely costly, and many laboratories have waiting lists of several months. This is a significant expenditure for small-scale business companies in the construction industry. Therefore, the goal of this study is to construct and test a smaller-scale hot box apparatus to measure the thermal performance of different building components at various climate conditions. The results indicated that the built hot box apparatus is capable of maintaining the steady-state temperature during the experiment within ±1℃ meeting the requirement of the ASTM C1363-19 standard and is capable of measuring the thermal performance of a building component within an accuracy of ±0.5 ft2·°F·h/BTU. This allows small companies to test several components at relatively low cost and minimum duration.