The impact of baseline wall U-value on energy performance of solid wall insulation

Seifhashemi, M; Elkadi, HA; Fitton, R

Abstract

Solid wall dwellings are in high energy demand and need to be treated by energy retrofit measures such as internal wall insulation (IWI). U-value is the key parameter for energy saving evaluations. There are uncertainties about the U-values of solid wall properties in literature which has led to under/over estimation of IWI performance. So, this paper investigates the energy performance of IWI pre and post insulation for Salford Energy House (SEH), the replica of a pre-1919 Victorian solid wall terraced house. IES-VE was used to develop a model for SEH and the model was validated against the collected experimental data. The base line solid wall U-values were changed between 0.64-2.48 W/m²K to assess the benefits of insulation for different solid walls. The results showed that annual heating energy saving varies significantly depending on the base line wall U-values ranging from 19% to 46.2%. The cost saving potentials as a result of energy saving varied by £228 per year between the cases with lowest and highest base line wall U-values. Furthermore, thermal comfort (18°C<T<=23°C) was improved and annual reduction of 1248 kg CO2e was achieved. Overheating was not significant for the case study using Manchester weather data since a small increase in %hours in which the temperature was above 23°C was observed after insulation. The result of this paper contributes towards better understanding of energy saving potentials of IWI within the UK and provides a more realistic picture of the IWI benefits for policymakers and relevant stakeholders.

Citation

Seifhashemi, M., Elkadi, H., & Fitton, R. (2020, September). The impact of baseline wall U-value on energy performance of solid wall insulation. Poster presented at 5th Building Simulation and Optimization 2020 Conference, Virtual

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: 5th Building Simulation and Optimization 2020 Conference
• Conference Location: Virtual
• Start Date: Sep 21, 2020
• End Date: Sep 22, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 22, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 4, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 4, 2021
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 5th IBPSA-England Conference on Building Simulation and Optimization (Virtual), Loughborough, UK: 21-22 September 2020
• Publisher URL: http://www.ibpsa.org/proceedings/BSO2020/BSOV2020_Seifhashemi.pdf
• Related Public URLs: https://www.ibpsa-england.org/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference