Energy Savings in a Building at Different Climatic Zones of India by Using Insulating Materials

Abstract

In India, infrastructure sector presently consumes about 40% of the total generated electric energy and it is estimated to further increase by 36% to make it 76% by the year 2040. Energy consumption in buildings mainly relies upon building’s envelope. In the building sector, especially in commercial buildings: Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems consume a major portion of the overall energy used for thermal comfort. By proper choice of thermal insulating materials, energy consumption can be reduced for winter heating and summer cooling of buildings. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) materials are used for the thermal insulation of buildings. In this paper, EPS and XPS insulations are selected with seven different glasses for simulations. Simulations are done with the help of eQUEST 3.63 software. Simulations for building cooling are done for five cities located in five different climatic zones of India, namely Bengaluru, Barmer, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, and Srinagar. For building heating, Srinagar City is selected for simulations. EPS and XPS materials are selected for insulating walls and roof. For exterior windows, single- and double-glazing glasses are selected. Simulation results show that energy savings for various combination of insulating material and window glazing glasses are varying from 4.703 to 25.58% for cooling. In Srinagar for the heating purpose, energy savings are varying from 52.904 to 71.71%.