Improvement of the Korean Design Criteria on Wall-To-Wall Junctions to Prevent Condensation in Apartment Houses

Abstract

Maintaining a proper temperature and humidity in a living space is very important for the health and comfort of apartment residents. Poor residential thermal conditions are recognized as a potential risk to the overall physical health. Thus, building development criteria that maintain an indoor environment separate from the outside environment have been continuously strengthened. However, this has not been the case in Korea, with regards to design criteria for the prevention of indoor condensation. In Korea, condensation occurs indoors frequently, during the winter season. When the outside temperature is low during the winter, a high indoor temperature and humidity would affect the indoor building materials and cause condensation. This study investigated and analyzed the indoor temperature and humidity during winter—when there is a significant difference in the outdoor and indoor temperatures—and conducted a survey on the residents’ lifestyles. Construction design criteria were found to be different from those of the past, and possible causes of changes in temperature and humidity were examined. We intended to establish enhanced design criteria that would prevent indoor condensation, by comparing our results to that of a study conducted in 2003.