Assessment of Energy, Environmental and Economic Costs of Buildings’ Thermal Insulation–Influence of Type of Use and Climate

Abstract

Among the aspects with major impacts on the energy and environmental performance of a building, the thermal insulation of the opaque elements of its envelope stands out. This work assesses the influence of the application of thermal insulation to the opaque elements of the building’s envelope on the thermal comfort conditions indoors; moreover, the influence of the thermal insulation on the energy, environmental, and economic costs over the building’s complete life cycle is evaluated. For this purpose, the three most commonly used thermal insulating materials (expanded polystyrene—EPS, extruded polystyrene—XPS, and mineral wool—MW), thicknesses between 0 (without insulation) and 40 cm, five climates (hot, warm, moderate, cold, and very cold), and six types of use (apartment, housing, clinic, school, bank branch, and supermarket) were considered. EPS reveals itself to be the most promising thermal insulation material, both in economic and environmental terms, so it was selected for this study. The EPS’ optimal thickness depends on the building’s type of use, the climate, and the perspective from which the assessment is carried out (energy, environmental, or economic). The results show that the economically optimal thicknesses of thermal insulation are significantly lower than the corresponding ones in environmental terms. Furthermore, the application of thermal insulation to the opaque building’s envelope is more beneficial in energy and environmental terms than from an economic perspective.

Assessing the Impact of Climate Changes, Building Characteristics and HVAC Control on Energy Requirements Under a Mediterranean Climate

“…Energy consumption for air conditioning depends on the climate characteristics, the building's type of use, the quality of its passive and active constructive elements, the level of thermal comfort assured, and the HVAC system energy efficiency and the proficiency of its operation control [7,10,12], and represents a very significant portion of the buildingʹs energy consumption [22,23].…”

“…Each type of opaque construction element relies on a common base structure, consistent across all buildings and climates. The base structure most used in Portugal was assumed [20,32], which leads to buildings with substantial thermal inertia, been a strategic choice for an effective mitigation of both overheating and cooling load peaks [10,13]. Table 2 outlines the base structure details for the opaque elements in contact with the exterior, including their thickness, useful thermal mass (Mt), and thermal transmission coefficient (U).…”

“…EPS thicknesses ranging from 0 cm (without insulation) to 12 cm were tested, representing the economically viable range for buildings situated in temperate Mediterranean climates [10,20]. As an example, Table 3 displays the thermal transmission coefficient (U) values for various opaque elements of the external envelope, corresponding to different EPS thicknesses.…”

“…The SEnergEd software [7,10,20,33], a validated in-home tool developed for research purposes, was employed in this study. This user-friendly software integrates algorithms for dynamically simulating the thermal and energy behaviour of various building types (residential, commercial, and service).…”

Valorization of Wheat Crop Waste in Araucanía, Chile: Development of Prototype of Thermal Insulation Material for Blowing Technique and Geographical Analysis

“…For this reason, European countries have been working on the development of thermal insulation materials for more than 30 years, as they allow reduced energy losses by transmission [9]. However, the thermal insulation market is dominated by inorganic materials, manufactured from petrochemical or natural sources, but, in the latter case, they have a large amount of contained energy [10,11].…”