Identification of Energy Saving Potential of Different Thermal Insulation Material by Mathematical Modelling

Abstract

The Rate of energy consumption depends on population growth rate and development rate of country's economy is proportionate to the rate of energy consumption.According to energy saving factor, country is distributed in main four sectors: Industrial, Residential, Transportation and Agricultural areas. Among these four sectors, Residential sector is one of the most energy consuming sector. Residential sector consumes 22% energy from the total rate of energy consumption. Refrigeration system and Air Conditioning system is in the list of basic needs now a days and these two consume more than 50% electricity from the total energy consumption. In the present work, a mathematical model is prepared to demonstrate energy saving potential of different thermal insulation materials. Thermally insulated and air condi- tioned room is taken as a specimen. Energy saving potential of different thermal insu- lation materials is calculated by the use of Numerical analysis. Heat gain through solar radiation and cooling capacity of air conditioner are applied as boundary conditions for different walls of the room. The wall is discretised using Finite Difference Method to ob- tained temperature at different nodes inside the wall. A code is developed to calculate the temperature on inside surface of wall and AC working time. Simulations have been carried out for a different conductivities and thickness of insulations. AC on-off time cycle for different insulation materials has been ploted using Tecplot. The amount of energy saved is calculated on the basis of how long the AC works during a whole day. Energy saved is directly proportional to the thickness of insulation used and inversely proportional to the conductivity of the insulation. A graph is plotted for Cost of electrical energy saved/day vs Thickness of insulated wall for different insulation and optimum thickness of insulated wall is obtained from it.