Effect of Climates and Building Materials on House Wall Thermal Performance

Abstract

The residential housing sectors consume a large amount of fossil fuel energy. Hence the sector is responsible for huge amount of greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere. Most energy used in the residential housing sector is mainly for space heating and cooling. In order to reduce the energy consumption in the housing sector, energy smart house wall system is required to develop. It is difficult to achieve higher thermal efficiency by using current building wall systems with their construction materials and methods. Although some studies on different aspects of residential housing were reported in the open literature, scant information is available on energy smart house wall systems for the main stream housing. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to investigate several new house wall systems using various construction materials in order achieve higher thermal efficiency for ongoing heating and cooling. Thermal energy performance modeling was undertaken for two current and four new house wall systems for varied climate conditions across Australia. The findings revealed that at new house wall systems can provide higher energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emission for major locations in Australia.