Thermoeconomic analysis for determining optimal insulation thickness for new composite prefabricated wall block as an external wall member in buildings

Abstract

The importance of energy conservation and energy costs is evident. Buildings play very significant roles in mitigating these issues. Therefore, focuses on the thermal performance of building and envelope design, has grown in recent years. The purpose of this study is to present a new and innovative design of composite prefabricated wall block (CPWB) and determine the optimum insulation thickness (OIT) of CPWB as an external wall member using the degree-day (DD) method with the life cycle cost (LCC) analysis for the provinces of Ardabil, Tehran and Khuzestan in Iran. Although Iran has been selected as case study, it can be generalized to other countries due to the diversity of geographic latitude and longitude of selected cities. These provinces are located in the cold, semi-arid, and warm climate regions, respectively. The components of the studied blocks are produced separately and different materials can be used in the production process of the blocks. As the insulation material, the unique combination of polystyrene, polyurethane and air-gap were used in this study. The results, based on heating and cooling, showed that the optimum thickness increases with the warming of atmospheric conditions which leads to growth in cost saving and reducing the payback period.