College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, US Abstract The intermittent heating and cooling energy need calculation of the ISO 13790 monthly method was examined. The current ISO 13790 method applies a reduction factor to the continuous heating and cooling need calculation result to derive the intermittent heating and cooling for each month. This paper proposes a method for the intermittent energy need calculation based on the internal mean temperature calculation. The internal temperature calculation procedure was introduced considering the heat-balance taking into account of heat gain, heat loss, and thermal inertia for reduced heating and cooling period. Then, the calculated internal mean temperature was used for the intermittent heating and cooling energy need calculation. The calculation results from the proposed method were compared to the current ISO 13790 method and validated with a dynamic simulation using EnergyPlus. The study indicates that the intermittent heating and cooling energy need calculation method using the proposed model improves transparency of the current ISO 13790 method and draws more rational outcomes in the monthly heating and cooling energy need calculation.