Thermal Analysis of an Educational Building with Different Construction Materials

Abstract

The energy consumption has been increased to an alarming rate in the current world. This scenario has raised many problems like depletion of energy resources, energy supply difficulties and increased carbon footprint (global warming, climate change). The objective of this research is to minimize the energy consumption in educational institutions. This study will help us in reducing the heating and cooling loads of building and resulting to saving cost. A prototype building was modelled in Autodesk Software, Ecotect 2011 for the climatic zone of Multan to examine the thermal performance with different construction materials. The building studied with different aspects including passive and active techniques, planning and design. These aspects were analyzed and results were evaluated. Various construction materials were listed and examined for the development of energy efficient envelope. The results showed 11.86 % decrease in energy usage including 11.76% decrease in cooling load and 46.59% in heating load with locally available building materials.