The design of a house wall as given in Figure 1 presents a common situation where it is useful to be able to calculate the heat transfer rate through a plane surface. Here, typical wood-frame construction is presented.
Wood siding on the outside surface of the wall is followed by plywood sheathing.
The inside surface is constructed of sheet rock. The student should identify the number of thermal resistances in this wall. Material properties and thicknesses are given below in Table 1. The instructor may want the student to construct the thermal circuit at this point and make sure that the convection resistances on each side of the wall are included. If the moisture condenses in the glass fiber it will degrade the effective conductivity of the material as well as cause other problems.