Building envelope performance with different insulating materials – an exergy approach
1School of Energy Management Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Katra (J&K) – India
2Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy Kapurthala (Punjab)-India
J Ther Eng 2015; 4(1): 433-439
Full Text PDF

Abstract

Buildings are now considered as investments, everyone is interestd in. But they end up consuming lot of energy, hence its performance is necessary to be checked. Building performance can best analysed by keeping a close watch on the bulding operations and the exergy analysis is a better and comprehensive way to understand it in totality. Buildings have now a days become the largest producer of green house gases, thus making them a potential option for analysis. This is why national and international organizations have joined hands to raise governances to carryout symbolic proposals in building’s sustainability, energy efficiency and environmental protection. The energy consumption due to thermal loads can be minimized by effective and judicious use of building resources which includes building design and its operations. The present communication deals with the detailed analysis of a building envelope for four different cases i.e. no insulation on walls and roof and oven dry wood, polyurethane foam and fiberglass as insulation for the roof and walls respectively. The behavior of the building envelope for all the cases, with the variation of the ambient temperature revealed that the exergy analysis is a quintessential analyzing the buildings for optimizing their energy consumption. Results revealed that polyurethane (PU) foam can be considered to be the best option for optimum performance from the building envelope.