Thermal performance evaluation of cellulose fibre as building insulation material

Abstract

Space cooling has utilized lots of electricity in summers which has to be reduced by insulating inside of buildings. Thishas potential to reduce the environment pollution caused by higher expenditure of energy. The present work has the scope toevaluate thermal performance of a test model house providing cellulose fibre based cardboard insulation and compare theperformance with an uninsulated model. The addition of heat through roof, walls and net heat gain during the day hasremained lesser for insulated test model than uninsulated test model. The temperature of indoor air has stayed lesser in caseof insulated test model than the uninsulated test model during the day particularly in the interval from 12 hrs to 19 hrs Theindoor air temperature for the insulated test model has remained lesser by 7°C from 14 hrs till 16 hrs in comparison touninsulated test model. The energy and financial savings obtainable for summers has value of 144 kWh and Rs 864respectively for insulated test model. The carbon dioxide emitted has reduced for summers by 226 kg for insulated testmodel. Hence better thermal comfort conditions have existed in the insulated buildings.