ISO 13786:2017 specifies the characteristics related to the dynamic thermal behaviour of a complete building component and provides methods for their calculation. It also specifies the information on building materials required for the use of the building component. Since the characteristics depend on the way materials are combined to form building components, ISO 13786:2017 is not applicable to building materials or to unfinished building components.

The definitions given in ISO 13786:2017 are applicable to any building component. A simplified calculation method is provided for plane components consisting of plane layers of substantially homogeneous building materials.

Annex C provides simpler methods for the estimation of the heat capacities in some limited cases. These methods are suitable for the determination of dynamic thermal properties required for the estimation of energy consumption. These approximations are not appropriate, however, for product characterization.

NOTE Table 1 in the Introduction shows the relative position of ISO 13786:2017 within the set of EPB standards in the context of the modular structure as set out in ISO 52000-1.