An investigation of moisture buffering performance of wood paneling at room level and its buffering effect on a test room

Abstract The concept of moisture buffering value based on material level tests has been widely adopted in current room level moisture buffering studies. However, the characterization of the material buffering properties may not be directly representative of the material buffering performance at room level because the room factors influence the moisture behavior of the materials. The moisture buffering is a dynamic moisture interaction process between the indoor humidity air and the hygroscopic finishing materials. The buffering effect is the amount by which the variation of the indoor humidity is dampened both by the hygroscopic materials and by the room factors. Hence, the magnitude of the buffering effect is related to the characteristics of the building structure. This paper presents an experimental study on the moisture buffering performance of wood paneling at room level and its buffering effects on the indoor environment. The data presented include the buffering effect values of several test scenarios on a full scale test hut in a large-scale environmental chamber. The data analysis shows that the moisture response of the hygroscopic material at room level varies in different test scenarios. This variation is influenced by room factors, including ventilation conditions and the amount of moisture generation, and to a lesser degree by the indoor initial humidity conditions. Hence, the buffering effect cannot be predicted based on the material performance alone.