Optimization of the Thermal Insulation Level of Residential Buildings in the Almaty Region of Kazakhstan

Abstract

Kazakhstan is country rich in energy resources, but to raise the living standards of the country’s population, the government regulates prices of heating energy, which are significantly lower comparing to those in the global energy market. Such an approach encourages the construction of residential buildings without concern for their energy efficiency, which significantly increases energy consumption in the sector and leads to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the impact of regulated low prices of heating energy on long-term energy use in buildings, to determine optimal levels of building thermal insulation at current energy prices and following global energy price trends, and to demonstrate the impact of more efficient building thermal insulation on heating energy consumption from a long-time perspective. The cost-optimal method used in EU countries was chosen for the optimization of building thermal insulation and energy consumption to compare the impact of energy prices on the optimal thermal insulation of buildings. The results of the study showed that maintaining low energy prices hinders the implementation of energy-efficient solutions in buildings and does not provide an economic justification for prolonging the heating season by ensuring the quality of the indoor microclimate. As a practical result of this study, a recommendation was made to introduce optimal thermal insulation requirements in building regulations and to redistribute part of the energy subsidies for implementation of energy-efficient measures in the residential building sector.

Geometric Aspects of Assessing the Amount of Material Consumption in the Construction of a Designed Single-Family House

“…The designer should not compromise any of the above-mentioned criteria according to a formally or intuitively made multicriteria analysis. The literature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] advises that an important criterion should be the limitation of the consumption of building materials, resulting, in particular, in the reduction of the embodied energy, regardless of the need to constantly search for low-energy technologies for the production of building materials [30][31][32][33].…”

“…Researchers in countries rich in energy resources are making efforts to offer their governments new solutions to reduce the energy demands in construction [9]. In other countries, researchers are constantly looking for building materials that require less energy to produce [10,11].…”

Optimal Balance between Heating, Cooling and Environmental Impacts: A Method for Appropriate Assessment of Building Envelope’s U-Value

“…Nevertheless, the evaluation of the optimal insulation thickness is generally defined according to the energy saving in the operational phase [15] or adopting the global cost approach introduced by the European Directive 2010/31/EU [11,16,17]. However, such methods do not consider the entire life cycle of the construction components, from the acquisition of raw materials to dismission.…”