This paper proposes a methodology of performance assessing of envelops under different cooling operation conditions, by focusing on indoor temperature change and dynamic thermal behavior performance of walls. To obtain a general relationship between the thermal environment change and the reaction of envelop, variously insulated walls made with the same insulation material are separately built in the same wall of a testing building with the four different structures, namely self-heat insulation (full insulation material), exterior insulation, internal insulation and intermediate insulation. The advantage of this setting is that the test targets are exposed to the same environmental variables, and the tests results are thus comparable. The target responses to two types of perturbations, cooling temperature and operation time were chosen as the important variations in the tests. Parameters of cooling set temperature of 22 degrees C and 18 degrees C, operation and restoring time 10 min and 15 mm are set in the test models, and discussed with simulation results respectively. The results reveal that the exterior insulation and internal insulation are more sensitive to thermal environment change than self-heat insulation and intermediate insulation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.