IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i13p3835-d582294.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimum Thickness of Thermal Insulation with Both Economic and Ecological Costs of Heating and Cooling

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Dylewski

    (Institute of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Econometrics, University of Zielona Góra, Licealna 9, 65-417 Zielona Góra, Poland)

  • Janusz Adamczyk

    (Institute of Management and Quality, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Zielona Góra, Licealna 9, 65-417 Zielona Góra, Poland)

Abstract

The energy efficiency of the construction sector should be determined by the cleanliness of the environment and, thus, the health of society. The scientific aim of this article was to develop a methodology for determining the optimum thickness of thermal insulation, taking into account both economic and ecological aspects and considering both heating and cooling costs. The method takes into account the number of degree days of the heating period, as well as the number of degree days of the cooling period. Variants in terms of different types of thermal insulation, various types of construction materials for building walls, climatic zones and heat sources, were taken into consideration. In order to find the optimum thicknesses of thermal insulation, both in economic and ecological terms, a metacriterion was used. The optimum thicknesses of thermal insulation with the use of the metacriterion were obtained in the range of 0.11–0.55 m. It was observed that the values of the optimum heat transfer coefficients for economic and ecological reasons do not depend on the type of construction materials used for vertical walls. The type of applied heat source is of the greatest importance for the size of the economic and ecological benefits. The proposed mathematical model for determining the optimum thickness of thermal insulation with the use of a metacriterion is a kind of generalization of earlier models from the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Dylewski & Janusz Adamczyk, 2021. "Optimum Thickness of Thermal Insulation with Both Economic and Ecological Costs of Heating and Cooling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:13:p:3835-:d:582294
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3835/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3835/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Dylewski, 2019. "Optimal Thermal Insulation Thicknesses of External Walls Based on Economic and Ecological Heating Cost," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Tronchin, Lamberto & Fabbri, Kristian, 2012. "Energy Performance Certificate of building and confidence interval in assessment: An Italian case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 176-184.
    3. Sofia Tsemekidi Tzeiranaki & Paolo Bertoldi & Francesca Diluiso & Luca Castellazzi & Marina Economidou & Nicola Labanca & Tiago Ribeiro Serrenho & Paolo Zangheri, 2019. "Analysis of the EU Residential Energy Consumption: Trends and Determinants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-27, March.
    4. Hernandez, Patxi & Kenny, Paul, 2011. "Development of a methodology for life cycle building energy ratings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3779-3788, June.
    5. Robert Dylewski & Janusz Adamczyk, 2020. "Impact of the Degree Days of the Heating Period on Economically and Ecologically Optimal Thermal Insulation Thickness," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Dascalaki, E.G. & Balaras, C.A. & Gaglia, A.G. & Droutsa, K.G. & Kontoyiannidis, S., 2012. "Energy performance of buildings—EPBD in Greece," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 469-477.
    7. Nematchoua, Modeste Kameni & Raminosoa, Chrysostôme R.R. & Mamiharijaona, Ramaroson & René, Tchinda & Orosa, José A. & Elvis, Watis & Meukam, Pierre, 2015. "Study of the economical and optimum thermal insulation thickness for buildings in a wet and hot tropical climate: Case of Cameroon," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1192-1202.
    8. Gian Paolo Beretta, 2007. "World energy consumption and resources: an outlook for the rest of the century," International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1/2), pages 99-112.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elaouzy, Y. & El Fadar, A., 2022. "Energy, economic and environmental benefits of integrating passive design strategies into buildings: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Maciej Dzikuć & Arkadiusz Piwowar, 2022. "Economic Aspects of Low Carbon Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-3, July.
    3. Piccardo, Chiara & Gustavsson, Leif, 2023. "Deep energy retrofits using different retrofit materials under different scenarios: Life cycle cost and primary energy implications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bertoldi, Paolo & Mosconi, Rocco, 2020. "Do energy efficiency policies save energy? A new approach based on energy policy indicators (in the EU Member States)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    2. Franke, Melanie & Nadler, Claudia, 2019. "Energy efficiency in the German residential housing market: Its influence on tenants and owners," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 879-890.
    3. Dariusz Bajno & Agnieszka Grzybowska & Łukasz Bednarz, 2021. "Old and Modern Wooden Buildings in the Context of Sustainable Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-31, September.
    4. Piotr Michalak & Krzysztof Szczotka & Jakub Szymiczek, 2021. "Energy Effectiveness or Economic Profitability? A Case Study of Thermal Modernization of a School Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, April.
    5. Melo, A.P. & Cóstola, D. & Lamberts, R. & Hensen, J.L.M., 2014. "Development of surrogate models using artificial neural network for building shell energy labelling," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 457-466.
    6. Salvalai, Graziano & Masera, Gabriele & Sesana, Marta Maria, 2015. "Italian local codes for energy efficiency of buildings: Theoretical definition and experimental application to a residential case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1245-1259.
    7. Constantinos A. Balaras & Andreas I. Theodoropoulos & Elena G. Dascalaki, 2023. "Geographic Information Systems for Facilitating Audits of the Urban Built Environment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-26, May.
    8. Hyunjoo Lee & Misuk Lee & Sesil Lim, 2018. "Do Consumers Care about the Energy Efficiency of Buildings? Understanding Residential Choice Based on Energy Performance Certificates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, November.
    9. Xie, Hailun & Eames, Matt & Mylona, Anastasia & Davies, Hywel & Challenor, Peter, 2024. "Creating granular climate zones for future-proof building design in the UK," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    10. Walery Jezierski & Mirosław Zukowski & Beata Sadowska, 2020. "Analysis of the Impact of Self-Isolation of Residents during a Pandemic on Energy Demand and Indoor Air Quality in a Single-Family Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-24, December.
    11. Rockstuhl, Sebastian & Wenninger, Simon & Wiethe, Christian & Ahlrichs, Jakob, 2022. "The influence of risk perception on energy efficiency investments: Evidence from a German survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    12. Agnieszka Napiorkowska-Baryla & Miroslawa Witkowska-Dabrowska & Natalia Swidynska, 2022. "Financing of Activities Increasing the Energy Efficiency of Residential Buildings in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 690-712.
    13. Luis M. López-Ochoa & Jesús Las-Heras-Casas & Luis M. López-González & César García-Lozano, 2020. "Energy Renovation of Residential Buildings in Cold Mediterranean Zones Using Optimized Thermal Envelope Insulation Thicknesses: The Case of Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-34, March.
    14. Axaopoulos, Ioannis & Axaopoulos, Petros & Gelegenis, John, 2014. "Optimum insulation thickness for external walls on different orientations considering the speed and direction of the wind," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 167-175.
    15. Niki-Artemis Spyridaki & Anastasia Ioannou & Alexandros Flamos, 2016. "How Can the Context Affect Policy Decision-Making: The Case of Climate Change Mitigation Policies in the Greek Building Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-22, April.
    16. Maria Psillaki & Nikolaos Apostolopoulos & Ilias Makris & Panagiotis Liargovas & Sotiris Apostolopoulos & Panos Dimitrakopoulos & George Sklias, 2023. "Hospitals’ Energy Efficiency in the Perspective of Saving Resources and Providing Quality Services through Technological Options: A Systematic Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-21, January.
    17. Kalliopi G. Droutsa & Constantinos A. Balaras & Spyridon Lykoudis & Simon Kontoyiannidis & Elena G. Dascalaki & Athanassios A. Argiriou, 2020. "Baselines for Energy Use and Carbon Emission Intensities in Hellenic Nonresidential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-29, April.
    18. Baglivo, Cristina & Congedo, Paolo Maria & Murrone, Graziano & Lezzi, Dalila, 2022. "Long-term predictive energy analysis of a high-performance building in a mediterranean climate under climate change," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PA).
    19. Han, Yongming & Lou, Xiaoyi & Feng, Mingfei & Geng, Zhiqiang & Chen, Liangchao & Ping, Weiying & Lu, Gang, 2022. "Energy consumption analysis and saving of buildings based on static and dynamic input-output models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).
    20. Eleftheria Touloupaki & Theodoros Theodosiou, 2017. "Optimization of External Envelope Insulation Thickness: A Parametric Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:13:p:3835-:d:582294. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.