The approach taken is a commonsensical one, starting with the proposition that the purpose of buildings is to house human activities, so that conservation measures that negatively affect such activities are based on false economies. The goal is to determine rational strategies for designing new buildings and retrofitting existing buildings to bring them up to modern standards of energy use. The energy flows examined are both large scale (heating systems) and small scale (choices among appliances.).

Fundamentals of Building Energy Dynamics assesses how and why buildings use energy, and how energy use and peak demand can be reduced. It provides a basis for integrating energy efficiency and solar approaches in ways that will allow building owners and designers to balance the need to minimize initial costs, operating costs, and life-cycle costs with the need to maintain reliable building operations and enhance environmental quality both inside and outside the building. Chapters trace the development of building energy systems and analyze the demand side of solar applications as a means for determining what portion of a building's energy requirements can potentially be met by solar energy.