A Study on Energy Performance and Optimum Thickness of Thermal Insulation for Building in Different Climatic Regions in Sudan

Abstract

The energy performance and optimum thickness of thermal insulation for buildings under Sudan climate regions was studied in this paper. Energy consumption principally of the building section represents a large section of the total energy consumption in Sudan. It is very important to mention that about more than 55% of total energy has been consumed in the buildings for heating and cooling purposes. The residential sector consumes about 56.7% from the total electrical energy consumption in Sudan. Heating/Cooling degree days method (HDD/CDD) with the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and an approach for insulation materials thickness optimization, energy saving, and payback period together with the MATLAB software are used in this study to calculate the optimum thermal insulation thickness for four selected cities in Sudan namely Khartoum, Dongola, Port Sudan, and Nyala, where an each city of them have a different climatic conditions. The optimum insulation thickness calculated for an external wall applied three different insulation materials which are Extruded polystyrene (XPS), Expanded polystyrene (EPS), and Glass wool (GW). These materials are applied for three different types of walls which are fired clay bricks, perforated red bricks, and cement hollow block. The results show that the optimum insulation thicknesses vary from 6 to 41 mm depending on the selected city. The energy cost savings and payback periods due to the optimum insulation thickness were determined for each selected city with the three insulation materials. The range of the annual energy cost savings is found to be between 0.4 to13.1 $/m2 .