Abstract
Space heating and cooling loads consume a significant part of the national produced energy in many countries. Therefore, substantial energy savings can be achieved by the reduction of spent energy in this category. Since wall insulation is rarely used in Libya, this research was conducted to study the effect of electricity price on residential heating and cooling energy consumption and on the insulation thickness. In addition, the study aims to trigger the problem of the huge energy losses due to space cooling and heating and to estimate potential savings. Degree-days values were used to estimate the amount of annual heating and cooling required per meter square of wall. The life-cycle cost analysis was used to estimate the optimum insulation thickness. The city of Tripoli, located in Libya’s Mediterranean coast was used as a case study. The results showed that the amount of annual energy savings could reach 16.9 kWh per meter square, with life cost savings of 46.1 $ per meter square. The study also showed that the current subsidized price of electricity does not encourage individuals to save energy by using thermal insulation in building walls. However, the amount of potential energy saving on a national scale is significant when considering the actual electricity price. It is estimated for a community of 10000 houses by about 67.7 million dollars.
Highlights
The growing demand for energy is globally rising as the world population increases and the improvements of living standards are sought
As the insulation thickness increases, the annual transmission load decreases to about 90% of the original load as shown in Fig 5. which illustrates the variation of the total load with the insulation thickness
The effect of the electricity prices on optimum insulation thickness was studied in this study for the city of Tripoli
Summary
The growing demand for energy is globally rising as the world population increases and the improvements of living standards are sought. Depending on the type of fuel used in cooling/heating and the city, the results showed that the optimum thickness of insulation ranged from 2 to 17 cm and the energy savings varied between 22 and 79% with 1.3-4.4 years of payback periods. Different electricity prices will be considered in the calculations in order to show the effect of the price on the insulation thickness and consequentially on energy savings.
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