Experimental and theoretical analysis of a new kind of building envelope

Abstract

A huge amount of money spent worldwide to attain thermal comfort in residential and commercial buildings throughout the year. The selection of proper insulation material for the building envelope is a very important factor in reducing the cooling and heating load of the building. Presently, authors have proposed a new wall panel namely Ferro Cellular Lightweight Concrete Insulated Panel (FCIP) for a building envelope. FCIP has been analyzed experimentally to study its energy-efficient behavior in the form of a small scale cubical and found to be an energy-efficient material. The same panel has been analyzed theoretically for its energy efficiency on a full-scale cubical model using ‘eQUEST’ an energy simulation program. In this process, walls and roof components of the cubical have been modeled with brick masonry and FCIP. The results of the simulation show that the cubical made of brick masonry walls with a concrete roof consume 10,190 kWh electrical energy in a year, whereas these masonry walls when replaced by FCIP with an insulated roof, the yearly electricity consumption reduced to 2383 kWh. Moreover, the results of cost and benefit analysis show a huge amount of reduction in the lifetime running cost of the building when the traditional construction through brick masonry was replaced by an FCIP envelope.