Energy and economic performance analysis of different ventilated wall construction types in residential buildings

Abstract

Due to the increasing energy consumption in the world, energy efficiency has become the most important issue in sectors with high energy use such as industry, transportation, agriculture and construction. In many countries, the energy consumed in housing composes a large part of the total energy consumption. In Turkey, about 20% of total energy consumption is utilized in residential buildings and about 60% of this energy is used for heating. The energy consumed in residence buildings can be reduced by measures to decrease the heating and cooling loads. For this purpose, the main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of ventilated walls on the energy and cost performance of buildings. The energy and cost efficiency of 27 different ventilation walls with 3 different insulation thicknesses, 3 different ventilation gap thicknesses and 3 different cladding materials were compared with the reference wall. For a family of 3, a flat with a 2 + 1 plan was chosen for investigation and the flat is located in Trabzon, which represents the moderate-humid climate region. Flat plans with different ventilated walls were modeled using DesignBuilder energy simulation software and monthly/annual heating and cooling loads were obtained. Then, life cycle cost analysis has been conducted to investigate the cost effective ventilated wall types. Although the high initial investment costs of the investigated ventilated walls increase the life cycle costs, it has been observed that they provide energy savings in buildings.

Decision-Making Approach based on Multi-objective Optimization to Achieve Net-Zero Energy Neighborhoods through Retrofit in a Tropical Climate

“…Considering the objective of reducing energy consumption, the cooling demand reduction category presents the options with the least cost savings. According to these results, it can be deduced that the envelope modifications suppose a minimum energy saving and a high cost (similar results were obtained in other studies) (17,18). This is presented in Table 3.…”

Energy-efficiency measures to achieve zero energy buildings in tropical and humid climates

“…Note that increasing the insulation thickness in walls decreases the cooling load, especially with green walls. Nonetheless, insulation materials represent a large initial cost [56], where A life cycle cost analysis is recommended to overcome such difficulties when selecting materials, contrasted with the primary energy consumption. However, environmental impact is not directly contemplated in such an analysis, and thus, to evaluate the sustainability of the adaptations, environmental impact indicators must be assessed since results may change considerably when not accounted for such impacts [51].…”