Development and Testing of an Innovative and Eco-friendly Thermal Insulation

Abstract

Heat transfer through building envelopes can be e ectively controlled by using thermal insulations which can help to regulate temperatures for human comfort, both in hot summers as well as cold winters thereby lowering the energy demands. Thus in an era of dwindling energy resources, thermal insulations play an increasingly important role in conserving energy as well as to provide desirable conditions such as improved comfort conditions in buildings. Substantial energy savings in buildings can be achieved by using thermal insulation with little capital expenditure (only about 5% of the building construction cost) which does not only reduce the operating cost, but also reduces HVAC the initial cost of equipment due to reduced equipment size required. Also residential and commercial retro t insulation has been found as one of the most cost e ective actions for greenhouse gas abatement. The conventionally used thermal insulations such as polyurethane foams, glass-wool, etc. have issues related to their disposal as well as their being environment unfriendly. Insulation materials derived from renewable agricultural resources such as hemp, ax, jute straw, various kinds of wood, recycled paper, coconut fiber, etc can play a crucial role in being eco-friendly and bio-degradable. India being an agriculture based economy, it is important that an efficient thermal insulation developed locally with the available agriculture based raw materials could provide comfort conditions in millions of un-electrified rural homes besides optimizing the consumption of our fast depleting fossil fuel reserves. Also it is important that the newly developed thermal insulation for building applications is tested thoroughly with specific focus on introducing desirable properties of low thermal transmittance, low water absorption, high strength etc. for improved thermo-mechanical performance and product life cycle. The present study developed an eco-friendly insulation comprising of coconut pith, corn cob, coconut fiber and paper pulp. The test results reveal that for a given proportion, the increase in formation pressure decreased thermal conductvity, while increases the sample density and compressive strength of sample. Also the influence of corn cob in reducing the thermal conductivity of sample was higher as compared to paper pulp. The sample developed was found to be stable.