Energy performance, environmental impact and cost of a range of insulation materials

Dickson, T.; Pavía, Sara

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.110752

Cited by 60 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The market for insulation materials is highly competitive in terms of both performance and cost. Natural insulation materials are currently a niche market [11]. Green composites are a type of biocomposite in which natural fibers are used to strengthen a bio-based polymer [12,13] Matrix.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Date Palm Surface Fibers for Green Thermal Insulation

et al. 2022

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Some of the major challenges of the twenty-first century include the continued increase in energy consumption and environmental pollution. One approach to overcoming these challenges is to increase the use of waste materials and environmentally friendly manufacturing methods. The high energy consumption in the building sector contributes significantly to global climatic changes. Here, by using date palm surface fibers, a high-performance green insulation material was developed via a simple technique that did not rely on any toxic ingredients. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was used as a binding agent. Four insulation samples were made, each with a different density within the range of 203 to 254 kg/m3. Thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity values for these four green insulators were 0.038–0.051 and 0.137–0.147 mm2/s, respectively. Thermal transmittance (U−value) of the four insulation composites was between 3.8–5.1 , which was in good comparison to other insulators of similar thickness. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that insulating sample have excellent thermal stability, with an initial degradation temperature of 282 °C, at which just 6% of its original weight is lost. Activation energy () analysis revealed the fire-retardancy and weakened combustion characteristics for the prepared insulation composite. According to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements, the insulating sample has a melting point of 225 °C, which is extremely close to the melting point of the binder. The fiber-based insulating material’s composition was confirmed by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The ultimate tensile range of the insulation material is 6.9–10 MPa, being a reasonable range. Our study’s findings suggest that developing insulation materials from date palm waste is a promising technique for developing green and low-cost alternatives to petroleum-based high-cost and toxic insulating materials. These insulation composites can be installed in building envelopes during construction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Date Palm Surface Fibers for Green Thermal Insulation

et al. 2022

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“…The total thermal resistance of the building (Rt) can be obtained for N number of intermediate floors using the parallel resistance concept as follows:  <math> <semantics> <mrow> <mfrac> (10) Figure 3. Illustration of the locations of the thermal resistances used in Equations ( 7)-( 9) for the tested building envelope.…”

Section: Between Floorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In another study by the same author, two-building envelopes, made from an autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) and cement block, were compared and showed a saving of 7% by the AAC residential building over the business-as-usual wall layer (cement block) [9]. Other studies have investigated the insulation type [10][11][12], thickness [10,[13][14][15], and location [16]. However, those studies did not consider the effect of thermal bridges on the building envelope performance and energy consumption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Thermal Bridges of Different External Wall Types on the Thermal Performance of Residential Building Envelope in a Hot Climate

2022

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In this paper, the thermal performance of residential building envelopes including thermal bridges (TBs) in a hot climate, using four different exterior wall types, is modelled and assessed. TBs at the junctions between columns and walls and between walls and slabs of the ground floor, roof, and intermediate floors are considered. The tested wall types are classical (two layers of cement blocks with insulation in between), autoclaved aerated concrete bearing (AAC-B), AAC column and beam (AAC-CB), and exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS). The results indicated that thermal bridges have a considerable effect and determine the best external wall type which was the EIFS that has a continuous exterior insulation. EIFS proved to reduce the heat transmission with the outdoor environment for residential buildings by 101.8, 51.2, and 13.9% than the AAC-CB, AAC-B, and classical walls, respectively. Thermal bridges effect on the building envelope using the EIFS is insignificant as the thermal resistance of the envelope and wall differs by less than 1% for small areas. The overall heat transfer coefficients for small buildings are larger than those for large buildings by 8–26%. As the number of intermediate floors increases from 1 to 50, the envelope overall heat transfer coefficient increases by 4.5% for the EIFS, 14.1% for classical, and 19.5% for AAC-CB walls. The AAC-CB, as the common practice wall structure in many hot climate countries, has the lowest performance among the tested wall types.

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“…Radiative heat transfer between human occupants and their environment largely depends on the radiative properties of clothing, the walls, and other surroundings. Although significant progress has been made on insulation materials for walls, prior studies have primarily examined thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and density ( Schiavoni et al., 2016 ; Wang et al., 2018 ; Dickson and Pavía, 2021 ).The effect of radiative heat transfer on thermal comfort has also been explored ( Winslow et al., 1939 ; Cai et al., 2017 ) but remains a comparatively untapped mechanism for efficiency gains. One approach that has attracted considerable interest in recent years is tuning the radiative properties of clothing through photonic and materials-based strategies, making the clothing fabric more or less transparent to thermal radiation emitted from the human wearer, depending on weather conditions ( Hsu et al., 2015 , 2016 ; Tong et al., 2015 ; Guo et al., 2016 ; Cai et al, 2019 ; Qiu et al., 2019 ; Yue et al., 2019 ; Zhou et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling radiative heat flows in interior spaces to improve heating and cooling efficiency

Jin

Raman

2021

iScience

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Summary Heating and cooling in buildings account for nearly 20% of energy use globally. The goal of heating and cooling systems is to maintain the thermal comfort of a building's human occupants, typically by keeping the interior air temperature at a setpoint. However, if one could maintain the occupant's thermal comfort while changing the setpoint, large energy savings are possible. Here we propose a mechanism to achieve these savings by dynamically tuning the thermal emissivity of interior building surfaces, thereby decoupling the mean radiant temperature from actual temperatures of interior surfaces. We show that, in cold weather, setting the emissivity of interior surfaces to a low value (0.1) can decrease the setpoint as much as 6.5°C from a baseline of 23°C. Conversely, in warm weather, low-emissivity interior surfaces result in a 4.5°C cooling setpoint decrease relative to high emissivity (0.9) surfaces, highlighting the need for tunable emissivity for maximal year-round efficiency.

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Energy performance, environmental impact and cost of a range of insulation materials

Cited by 60 publications

References 26 publications

Date Palm Surface Fibers for Green Thermal Insulation

Date Palm Surface Fibers for Green Thermal Insulation

Effect of Thermal Bridges of Different External Wall Types on the Thermal Performance of Residential Building Envelope in a Hot Climate

Controlling radiative heat flows in interior spaces to improve heating and cooling efficiency

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