使用冰和冷冻水储存系统来降低峰值能源需求已得到充分证实。然而，关于利用建筑热质量抵消峰值能源需求的实验结果相对较少。使用非峰值冷却从建筑物蓄热室中提取热量可能会增加能源使用，同时降低峰值冷负荷和冷却成本。本文介绍了ASHRAE TC 4.6资助的一个关于建筑蓄热的项目。本研究项目旨在评估建筑蓄热对峰值冷负荷的影响。在位于佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔的独立人寿保险大楼上进行了两项实验。这栋楼高37层，建筑面积100万平方英尺。实验的目的是在夜间和周末对建筑物进行预冷，以减少白天的冷负荷。 对预冷层和未预冷层的气流和温度进行测量，以计算供应给每个层的能量。在预冷层上对混凝土地板表面的温度和热流进行了额外测量。实验结果表明，预冷降低了冷却负荷。混凝土地板表面的温度和热流测量揭示了热质量的充放电程度。实验结果与日热容计算结果进行了比较。日热容量法是一种频率法，可用于计算建筑物的储能潜力。

The use of ice and chilled water storage systems to reduce peak energy demands is well established. However, relatively few experimental results have been published on the use of building thermal mass to offset peak energy demand. The use of off peak cooling to extract heat from a buildings thermal store may increase energy use while reducing peak cooling loads and cooling costs. This paper describes a project sponsored by ASHRAE TC 4.6 on building thermal storage. The purpose of this research project was to evaluate the effect of building thermal energy storage on the peak cooling load. Two experiments were performed on the Independent Life Insurance building located in Jacksonville Florida. This building is 37 stories high with one million square feet of floor area. The objective of the experiments was to pre-cool the building at night and during the weekend to reduce daytime cooling loads. Measurements of airflow and temperature on a story with pre-cooling and a story without pre-cooling were used to calculate the energy supplied to each story. Additional measurements of temperature and heat flux at the concrete floor surface were made on the pre-cooled story Results from the experiment show the reduction in cooling load due to pre-cooling. Temperature and heat flux measurements at the concrete floor surface reveal the extent of charging and discharging of the thermal mass. Results from the experiments were compared to diurnal heat capacity calculations. Diurnal heat capacity is a frequency method which can be used to calculate the potential for energy storage in a building.