Improvements in the thermal and energy performance of buildings usually involves techniques with high computational costs, such as multi-objective optimization and parametric simulation. However, sometimes, achieving the optimal case is not desirable, though only the refinement of thermal performance. Hence, methods that enable this analysis are helpful for designers and researchers. Then, this study proposed a framework based on the Heat Exchange Index to assist thermal performance analysis of buildings. The framework consists of two phases and begins by exploring air and surface heat balance derived from the base case building simulation. This analysis is based on the Heat Exchange Index, an index developed in this work, and its result indicates the impact of each heat exchange on the thermal performance. The next phase is the improvement, where strategies are defined and implemented, and the thermal performance of the improved case is evaluated against the base case. A single-family house was modeled using EnergyPlus to demonstrate the framework application. Results showed that the Heat Exchange Index could be used to enhance the thermal performance of buildings since the strategies adopted in the base case increased its thermal autonomy and decreased thermal load.

The multi-domain comfort theory investigates human-environmental perception and comfort by accounting for people's simultaneous exposure to various stimuli from different physical domains. Multi-domain studies describe human reactions to environmental conditions, including indoor occupants' behaviour and comfort. Building simulation is essential to analyse Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and energy consumption in buildings. Introducing multi-domain comfort theories in building simulation practices could improve reliability. A systematic literature review investigated the approaches adopted in multi-domain building simulation during the last decade. The simulation studies discussed herein combine two or more domains related to IEQ in buildings, indicating the state of the art, limitations, and potential trends. This review showed that multi-domain simulation comprising all the IEQ domains is still missing due to its complexity and the lack of standards for multi-domain comfort. Simulation studies mostly involved two domains - thermal and air quality or thermal and visual. The most common engines and software combinations were presented, and related interoperability issues were discussed. The most common inputs and outputs for each domain were described to identify common ground where to start building up an efficient multi-domain simulation framework. The role of the quality report was also addressed, pointing out that the current validation procedures are incipient. Advancing multi-domain simulation knowledge concurrently with understanding multi-domain comfort growth would benefit researchers and practitioners. Therefore, multi-domain simulations can become a powerful tool to guide occupant-centric building design and operation.