Optimal location and thickness of insulation layers for minimizing building energy consumption

Abstract

This work aims to optimize the position and thickness of insulation layers in building external wall for climates in the coastal Mediterranean zone and in the inland plateau of Lebanon. A space and an air-conditioning system performance models are developed to predict the space and system loads and associated thermal comfort of occupants. A genetic algorithm is used for the optimization of the life cycle cost of the insulation based on energy load while including the productivity loss associated with thermal discomfort during transient periods. For continuous operation of building HVAC system, adding insulation reduces life cycle cost by 20% over current thermal code requirements. During intermittent operation, locating the insulation at the inner side of the walls results in 15% reduction in energy load compared to locating it on the outer wall. The optimum thickness varied between 3 cm and 5 cm depending on wall orientation climate season.

Role of building material in thermal comfort in tropical climates – A review

“…In the recent years, lot of advancement and technology innovations have happened in building material and such materials have a great potential to be used in tropical regions for achieving thermal comfort and energy saving. Contemporary research reports several types of advanced materials such as gas-filled panels, polymer skins, aerogels and vacuum insulation panels which have the potential to provide better thermal insulations depending on the locations and the thickness of the material [76,77]. Thermal performance of advanced materials [40] has been claimed by various researchers to play a lead role in energy efficiency and in providing thermal comfort.…”

Building envelope with a new aerogel-based insulating rendering: Experimental and numerical study, cost analysis, and thickness optimization

“…The optimum insulation thickness corresponds to the value that provides minimum total life cycle cost. While most of those studies [54][55][56][57][58][59] use degreedays concept which is a simple model to estimate the transmission loads under static conditions, others [60][61][62][63] used dynamic transient models based on numerical and analytical methods to obtain more accurate results.…”

Multi-Objective Optimization of the Envelope of Building with Natural Ventilation

“…Additionally, several other design parameters have a significant effect on heating and cooling demand in buildings, such as a building shape and orientation, wall and roof constructions, window sizes and shading, as well as characteristics of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems (type, efficiency, and operation settings) [13][14][15][16][17][18]. For that reason designers should take into account the best combination of these parameters, which can minimize energy use over the lifespan of a building.…”

“…The optimum balance should be found between the initial investment and the energy savings during the building life cycle. Life cycle cost (LCC) is the most popular economic factor as objective function in research [1,2,5,15,26].…”