Abstract:
Energy consumption by buildings plays a major role in the sustainable and
economic development of a country. In Sri Lanka, the electricity supply is not
adequate to meet the rising demand. Therefore, the cost of electricity can be
expected to increase in the future, resulting in a corresponding increase in the
operating cost of dwellings. Several energy-efficient building materials with low
thermal conductivities have been developed to increase the thermal comfort of
buildings and reduce operational costs. Precast sandwich panels were assumed to
be one of them. This paper presents a comparative study among precast panels,
bricks, and hollow concrete blocks to evaluate the merits of precast sandwich
panels and methods to increase their thermal performance. A selected housing
unit was modeled and analyzed for thermal performance using DEROB-LTH for
different wall materials. From the obtained results, it shows the window area is a
crucial factor and for a low window area, the most thermally favorable material is
precast panels. Then the model was altered to investigate the passive techniques
that can apply to the house for better thermal comfort. It was recommended to use
window shadings with sufficient length and to increase window opening
percentage.
