*4.1. The Equivalent Energy*

The shape factor offers an affordable method to estimate the design quality of a building. However, it does not take into account some of the characteristics that influence the energy consumption. The equivalent energy solves these deficiencies since it depends on the outdoor and the indoor environmental conditions, with the latter being the result of the morphology of the building.

According to the obtained results, the location does not influence the amount of energy the dwellings are equivalent to in a meaningful way. The envelopes are equal to a specific amount of energy and isolate a specific amount of energy. This way, the modification of the outdoor conditions they achieve remains stable.

Taking as a basis the building materials which were analyzed, it can be concluded that those with the lower thermal resistance provide the envelopes with the highest values of equivalent energy. A high diffusivity provokes that weather changes modify the indoor conditions very fast, and thereby, the capacity of the envelope to alter the outdoor conditions remains practically stable throughout all the year. Therefore, this capability is not influenced by the placement of the building, specifically in New Mexico, where the present research is focused in and where the summer is more pronounced. Not at all it is intended to assess that the indoor conditions achieved by low diffusivity materials reach the comfort level. The aim of this research is to determine the capacity of an envelope to modify the outdoor conditions; it is not to determine if the indoor conditions that it achieves are the most comfortable ones. However, it can be very useful for complementing other values, such as the concept of Zero Energy Buildings [82], since the higher the equivalent energy of a building is, the lower its energy consumption is.
