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Optimum insulation thickness of walls
for energy-saving in hot regions of India
A. Shanmuga Sundaram
a
& Anirudh Bhaskaran
b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jaya Engineering
College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of
Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Version of record first published: 24 Jan 2013.
To cite this article: A. Shanmuga Sundaram & Anirudh Bhaskaran (2013): Optimum insulation
thickness of walls for energy-saving in hot regions of India, International Journal of Sustainable
Energy, DOI:10.1080/14786451.2012.759573
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786451.2012.759573
Optimum insulation thickness of walls for energy-saving in hot
regions of India
A. Shanmuga Sundaram
a
* and Anirudh Bhaskaran
b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jaya Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India;
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
(Received 17 July 2012; nal version received 12 December 2012)
In India, the energy consumption in the building sector is rapidly increasing due to improvement in living
standards. Effective thermal insulation of building walls is one of the most effective energy conservation
measures for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning applications in buildings. In this study, the ther-
moeconomic optimisation of insulation thickness on walls of buildings is analysed based on degree days.
Thermoeconomic parameters such as optimuminsulation thickness, annual electrical energy consumption,
annual energy cost and payback period is determined for three different insulation materials for the cities
located in India. Database on insulation materials for ve cities of India are provided.
Keywords: optimum insulation thickness; life cycle cost; life cycle savings; payback period; cooling
degree days; heating degree days; base temperature
Nomenclature
CDD cooling degree days (K days)
HDD heating degree days (K days)
N
C
total number of cooling days
T
so
sol-air temperature (

C)
N
h
total number of heating days
T
i
indoor base temperature (

C)
T
o
outside temperature (

C)
I
T
total solar radiation (W/m
2
K)
a solar absorptivity of outdoor surface
h
o
coefcient of heat transfer by long-wave radiation and convection at outer surface
(W/m
2
K)
q heat loss per unit area of wall (W/m
2
)
U heat transfer coefcient of wall (W/m
2
K)
E
c
annual energy consumption for cooling per unit area (kWh/m
2
)
EER energy efciency ratio of the cooling system
R thermal resistance (m
2
K/W)
x insulation thickness (m)
*Corresponding author. Email: speakdrss@gmail.com
2013 Taylor & Francis
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2 A. Shanmuga Sundaram and A. Bhaskaran
P
1
, P
2
dened in Equations (8) and (9)
N life cycle period (years)
i market discount rate (%)
d electricity price rate (%)
M
s
ratio of annual maintenance and operation cost into rst original cost
R
v
ratio of resale value into rst original cost
C
ins
insulation cost per unit area (INR/m
2
)
C
i
price of insulation material (INR/m
3
)
LCT life cycle total cost
LCS life cycle saving
C
E
cost of electricity (INR/kWh)
C
p
specic heat capacity (J/kg K)
x
opt
optimum insulation thickness (m)
N
p
payback period (years)
Greek symbols
thermal conductivity (W/mK)
density of the material (kg/m
3
)
surface emittance
R difference between long-wave radiation incident on surface from sky and surroundings
and radiation emitted by a blackbody at outdoor air temperature
Subscripts
un uninsulated
ins insulated
o outside
i inside
w wall
Abbreviations
INR Indian rupee
1. Introduction
Due to exponential growth in population and improvement in living standards, the demand for
energy in India is steadily increasing and has grown at an average of 3.6% per annum over the
past 30 years (Pinak and Geetha 2011). Being the sixth largest energy consumer in the world,
India accounts for 3.4% of global energy consumption. The total energy consumption is divided
among four main sectors such as industrial, building (residential/commercial), transportation and
agriculture. The building sector consumes 30% of the total national energy consumption and is
rising annually at 8%. The distribution of energy use in residential and commercial building is
shown in Figure 1 (Remme et al. 2011). The energy required for space heatingcooling is the
highest share of all utilities and it continues to grow due to improvement in life standards and
exponential growth in information technology. Effective thermal insulation of building envelope
reduces the heat transfer rate and energy consumption for space heatingcooling. The selection
of insulation material is based on its thermal conductivity and price. The increase in insulation
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy 3
Figure 1. Distribution of energy use in residential and commercial building.
thickness reduces the energy consumption required for space cooling, however; the insulation
cost increases, and an optimum point is required to minimise the investment cost. There must be
an optimum insulation thickness which reduces the investment cost and energy cost required for
space heatingcooling over the lifetime of the building. The use of insulation material to reduce
the heat transmission in buildings has been in practice for many years.
The increase in necessity of space heatingcooling, concerns of energy conservation and strin-
gent norms on environment protection has encouraged in revisiting the problem of thermal
insulation. Most of the studies focus on the determination of optimum thickness of insulation
for external walls in buildings based on cooling degree days (CDD) and heating degree days
(HDD) (Comakli and Yuksel 2003, 2004; Dombayci 2007; Durmayaz, Kadioglu, and Sen 2000;
Hasan 1999; Mahlia, Tauq, and Ismail 2007; Ozkan and Onan 2011; Sisman et al. 2007; Ucar
2010; Ucar and Balo 2010).
Ozel (2011) formulated a numerical model to determine the optimum thickness of thermal
insulation under dynamic thermal conditions by using the climatic conditions of Elazij, Turkey.
The environmental impacts of thermal insulation are also investigated. Daouas, Hassen, and
Aissia (2010) calculated the optimum thickness analytically for different wall orientations in the
Tunisian Climate. The yearly cooling and heating loads were estimated using the complex nite
Fourier transform technique. Ucar and Balo (2010) investigated the optimum thickness by using
exergoeconomic analysis for the four different climatic regions of Turkey, considering condensed
vapour in the external walls. Yu et al. (2009) determined the optimum insulation thickness of
external walls for four different cities of China by using the degree days method. Considering
ve different insulation materials, different orientations, surface colour, P
1
P
2
method is used for
economic analysis. Bolatturk (2006) investigated the optimuminsulation thicknesses and payback
periods for seven cities located in the warmest zone in Turkey based on heating and cooling degree
hours.
The effect of electricity tariff on optimum insulation thickness was investigated by Al-Sanea,
Zedan, and Al-Ajlan (2005) and Gustafsson and Karlson (1989). Al-Sanea, Zedan, and Al-Ajlan
(2005) combined the heat transfer model based on the nite volume with an economic model
based on life cycle analysis and investigated the optimum insulation thickness for the climatic
conditions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia using expanded polystyrene as insulation material. Cabeza
et al. (2010) conducted experimental studies to evaluate the inuence of the insulation materials
used in buildings in Spain, the insulation materials are polystyrene, polyurethane and mineral
wool. They concluded that use of 0.05 m thick insulation reduces the electrical energy con-
sumption for air-conditioning up to 64% in summer and up to 37% for electric oil radiators in
winter.
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4 A. Shanmuga Sundaram and A. Bhaskaran
Figure 2. Climatic zones of India.
Source: Bureau of Indian Standard (2005, Part B, Fig. 2).
The country is divided into six climatic zones based on the meteorological data such as hourly
temperature, various climatic parameters and solar radiation, which are recorded for a period of 30
years at 233 stations in India. This vast climatic diversity along with varied income group devel-
oped different energy use patterns which inuenced energy consumption. Although the energy
consumption in India is much less than the worlds average, still due to lack of energy efcient
practices, Indian buildings give rise to signicant energy wastage. Due to a lack of awareness on
energy conservation needs and poor buying capacity, both commercial and residential establish-
ments with installed air-conditioning systems in almost all the six climatic zones of the country
lacks the usage of energy efcient devices and basic practices such as building insulation. In an
effort to promote energy conservation in buildings, the Government of India recently has set up
a Bureau of energy efciency (BEE) and has brought out an energy conservation building code
(Bureau of Indian Standard 2005; Bureau of Energy Efciency, Ministry of Power, and Govern-
ment of India 2007). BEE has made it mandatory for manufactures to have a certied Star label on
appliances giving information about its energy consumption that also includes refrigerators and
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy 5
air conditioners. In India, there are only fewstudies on insulation and to the knowledge of authors;
no literature is available on thermoeconomic analysis of building wall insulation. In this study,
optimum insulation thickness for building walls with respect to degree days for cities located in
India with different climatic conditions are calculated considering three different insulation mate-
rials. In addition, the life cycle total cost (LCT), life cycle savings (LCSs) and payback period
are also determined using the P
1
P
2
method. The main objective of this study is to provide data
bank on building insulation for hot and dry and warm and humid regions of India.
2. Calculation of degree days
The use of proper insulation is the effective way to conserve energy in building applications.
The suitable and optimum insulation can be obtained by estimating the energy requirement for
heatingcooling based on seasonal requirements. The annual energy consumption for heating
cooling is the time integral of instantaneous consumption over the heating or cooling season.
The steady-state approach, the degree-days method is the simplest and intuitive way of estimat-
ing the annual energy consumption for heatingcooling in buildings. This method is based on
constant indoor conditions during heating or cooling seasons and assumes that the heating or
cooling equipment efciency is not affected by the variation of outdoor temperature. Degree days
offer a means of calculating the amount of heating and cooling required by the building on a
given day, month or year. The energy requirement for space heating or cooling is assumed to
Figure 3. Month-wise degree days for cities.
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6 A. Shanmuga Sundaram and A. Bhaskaran
be proportional to the difference between the hourly average temperature and the indoor base
temperature. The solar radiation absorbed by the outside walls should be taken into account as
they are opaque surfaces by considering the sol-air temperature. Therefore, the CDDand HDDare
expressed as
CDD =
N
c

j=1
(T
so
T
i
)
j
for T
so
T
i
, (1)
HDD =
N
h

j=1
(T
i
T
so
)
j
for T
so
T
i
. (2)
The sol-air temperature is expressed as
T
so
= T
o
+
al
T
h
o

R
h
o
.
Typical metrological year data, recorded at six regional meteorological centres of India for the span
of 30 years and provided by the India Meteorological Department is used for calculating the degree
days. The cities such as Chennai, Trichy, Trivandrum, Hyderabad and Kurnool located in South
India are taken for the study and its climatic type is subtropical. The degree days calculated for
various base temperatures are given in Figure 3, it shows clearly no heating is required throughout
the year since all cities considered are in the arid tropical dry regions. The HDD are zero since
hot regions are considered.
3. Optimum thickness of insulation
Heat transmissions from ambient to room occurs through external walls, ceiling, windows and
basement and by inltration. Due to the large but nite thermal capacity of the roof, oor, walls,
etc., their temperature increases slowly due to absorption of radiant heat. The radiant portion
introduces a time lag and also a decrement factor depending upon the dynamic characteristics
of the surfaces. Due to the time lag, the effect of radiation will be felt even when the source of
radiation is not present due to sunset. Therefore, insulation plays a vital role in residential and
commercial buildings. India has diverse climatic condition such as hot and dry, hot and humid,
very cold and moderate. Thermal insulation requirement also varies with the climate zone and
type of building use. In tropical regions of India, walls built of bricks or y ash blocks are only
covered with plaster internally and externally unlike in cold climates, where sandwich walls
are constructed. The objective of the study is to optimise the insulation thickness provided in the
internal surface of a wall in a residential building. The details of the insulated and uninsulated walls
are given in Figure 4. The wall is affected by three modes of heat transfer mechanisms: conduction,
convection and radiation. The outer surface of wall absorbs solar radiation and transmits it into
the inner surface through conduction. Subsequently, the convective heat transfer occurs between
ambient air and outer surface of wall, also between the inner surface of wall and indoor air. The
thermal transmission through the wall for unit area is given as
q = U(T
so
T
i
). (3)
The annual energy consumption for cooling per unit area is expressed as
E
c
=
0.024U CDD
EER
. (4)
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy 7
Figure 4. Typical building wall structures.
Table 1. Properties of insulation materials.
Insulation (kg/m
3
) k (W/mK) C
p
(J/kg K) C
i
(INR/m
3
)
Expanded polystyrene 25 0.05 1380 2226
Foamed polyurethane 30 0.033 1380 5533
Foamed PVC 130 0.048 1380 8589
The overall heat transfer coefcient for a typical wall with insulation and without insulation given
in Figure 4 is given as
U
un
=
1
R
i
+R
w
+R
o
, (5)
U
ins
=
1
R
i
+R
w
+R
ins
+R
o
. (6)
The difference between the overall heat transfer coefcient of insulated and uninsulated wall can
be written as
U =
1
R
w

1
_
R
w
+
x

ins
_. (7)
Economic analyses to formulate closed equation for optimum thickness are carried out by the
P
1
P
2
method proposed by Dufe and Benchman (1991). This method is used to calculate the
present worth value of the amount of net energy savings by providing insulation for the inner
surface. P
1
is the life cycle energy related to the market discount rate, energy cost ination rate
and economic analysis period. P
2
is the ratio of life cycle expenditures incurred because of the
additional capital investment to the initial investment. The equations for P
1
and P
2
is dened as
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8 A. Shanmuga Sundaram and A. Bhaskaran
P
1
=

N
1 +i
for i = d
1
(d i)
_
1
_
1 +i
1 +d
_
N
_
for i = d

, (8)
P
2
= 1 +P
2
M
s
R
v
(1 +d)
N
. (9)
The insulation cost per unit area is expressed as
C
ins
= C
i
x. (10)
Table 2. Economical parameters.
Parameters Value
Insulation Table 1
External wall: 15 mm cement mortar +
220 mm brick +15 mm cement mortar
R
wt
= 0.3132 K/W
Cost of electricity 4.715 INR/kWh
EER 3.09
I 5%
D 5%
N 20years
M
s
0
R
v
0
P
1
19.047
P
2
1
Figure 5. Optimum thickness vs. base temperature for different cities.
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy 9
The LCT of the insulation material and energy consumption can be calculated by the following
equation
LCT = P
1
C
E
E
c
+P
2
C
ins
, (11)
LCT = P
1
C
E
_
0.024U CDD
EER
_
+P
2
C
i
x. (12)
The LCS is the difference between the saved energy cost over the lifetime and the insulation
payout is expressed as
LCS = P
1
C
E
E
c
P
2
C
ins
, (13)
LCS = P
1
C
E
_
0.024U CDD
EER
_
P
2
C
i
x. (14)
The optimum thickness of insulation can be determined by differentiating Equation (14) and
equating to zero. The optimum thickness in the closed form is expressed as
x
opt
=
_
0.024C
E
P
1

ins
CDD
P
2
C
i
EER
_
1/2
R
w

ins
. (15)
By equating Equation (14) to zero and taking P
2
= 1 since there is no maintenance cost, the
payback period is obtained as
Figure 6. Annual life savings vs. base temperature for different cities.
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10 A. Shanmuga Sundaram and A. Bhaskaran
N
p
=

P
2
C
i
EER(1 +i)(R
2
w

ins
+xR
w
)
0.024 CDD C
E
for i = d
ln
_
1
P
2
C
i
EER(R
2
w

ins
+xR
w
)
0.024 CDD C
E
(i d)
_
ln
_
1 +i
1 +d
_ for i = d

. (16)
Five cities Chennai, Trichy, Trivandrum, Hyderabad and Kurnool situated in South India
are selected for the study. The optimum thickness of insulation materials, including expanded
polystyrene, foamed polystyrene and foamed polyvinylchloride (PVC) are calculated with a typ-
ical residential wall shown in Figure 4. The properties of insulation materials are given in Table 1.
The parameters related to thermoeconomic analysis are given in Table 2.
4. Results and discussion
The objective of this paper is to determine the optimum thickness of insulation with respect to
cooling loads at various cities of a typical wall built for the buildings in India. The optimum
insulation thickness is found for three different insulation materials at various cities to iden-
tify material suitability and thermoeconomics. The base temperature is also varied to provide
a data bank on insulation material for various cities. The variation of optimum thickness with
Figure 7. Payback period vs. base temperature for different cities.
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy 11
Figure 8. Annual electrical energy consumption vs. base temperature for different cities.
respect to the base temperature for different materials is shown in Figure 5. As the base tem-
perature increases, the optimum insulation thickness decreases for all materials selected for the
study. A similar pattern is seen for all cities. In all cities, the optimum thickness assumes the
highest values at 18

C irrespective of the material. The optimum thickness is directly propor-

tional to the degree days in power order by 1/2. The range of optimum thickness of the three
insulation materials are 0.2260.105 m in Chennai, 0.2320.108 m in Trichy, 0.2040.094 m in
Trivandrum, 0.2160.100 min Hyderabad and 0.2440.114 min Kurnool for the base temperature
of 18

C. The optimum insulation thickness for expanded polystyrene is high when compared to
foamed polyurethane and formed PVC. For same degree days, the optimum thickness is directly
proportional to the insulation thermal conductivity and inversely proportional to its insulation
cost.
Energy savings is maximum at optimum insulation thickness, therefore LCSs is calculated
for different base temperatures based on optimum insulation thickness. The variation of life cost
savings over the 20 years lifetime with respect to base temperature is shown in Figure 6. The
annual life savings decreases with increase in base temperature for all three insulation materials
and similarity is seen for all cities. It is linear with base temperature. LCS is directly proportional
to the square root of degree days. For a base temperature 18

C, the optimumthickness of insulation

assumes a high value; the LCS of all three insulation materials also assumes a high value. Life cost
savings for expanded polystyrene is high for all ve cities when compared to foamed polyurethane
and foamed PVC. Figure 7 shows the payback period when applying the optimum insulation
thickness for various base temperatures. It is clear that the payback periods for base temperature
18

C are 1.32.5 years in Chennai, 1.22.4 years in Trichy,1.42.7 years in Trivandrum, 1.32.6
years in Hyderabad and 1.22.3 years in Kurnool. The payback period for all insulation materials
assumes a high value for base temperature 18

C. It is clear that the payback period for base

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12 A. Shanmuga Sundaram and A. Bhaskaran
Figure 9. Annual energy cost vs. base temperature for different cities.
temperature 18

C for expanded polystyrene is less when compared to other materials for all ve
cities. The graph pattern for all cities is almost similar and the expanded polystyrene assumes low
payback period when compared to foamed polyurethane and foamed PVC.
The variation of the annual electrical energy consumption per square metre of wall with respect
to the base temperature for three insulation materials is shown in Figure 8. It is obvious that as
the base temperature increases, the annual electrical energy consumption decreases. This happens
due to a reduction in CDD which is the main input for calculating the annual electrical energy
consumption. In all cities, the annual electrical energy consumption for expanded polystyrene is
very high when compared to the other two materials. The annual electrical energy consumption
for foamed polystyrene and foamed PVC is almost equal for all cities.
It is noted from Figure 9 that the annual energy cost decreases with an increase in base temper-
ature. The insulation cost increases with increase in insulation thickness and it is independent of
energy cost. For a base temperature of 18

C, the optimumthickness for all cities is high. The other

parameters such as annual life savings, annual electrical energy consumption and annual energy
cost is also high for all materials. Since for all the cities, there are no HDD, the CDD plays an
important parameter in the optimisation. Due to an increased cooling load at the low base temper-
ature, the parameters such as optimum insulation thickness, annual life savings, annual electrical
energy consumption and annual energy cost decreases with the increase in base temperature. This
similarity is seen for all ve cities.
The thermal conductivity and insulation cost are two vital parameters that should be considered
to select the insulation material. Since the graphical patterns for all cities are almost similar, only
the parameters pertaining to Chennai city is taken into consideration to determine the suitable
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International Journal of Sustainable Energy 13
Table 3. Parameters range for Chennai city.
Optimum Annual electrical Annual Payback Thermal Insulation
Insulation insulation energy consumption energy cost LCS period conductivity cost
material thickness (m) (kWh/m
2
) (INR/kWh) (INR) (years) value (W/mK) (INR/m
3
)
Expanded polystyrene 1 1 1 1 3 3 3
Foamed polyurethane 2 2 2 2 2 1 2
Foamed PVC 3 3 3 3 1 2 1
insulation material. The ranking order for the parameters such as optimum insulation thickness,
annual electrical energy consumption, annual energy cost, LCS, payback period, thermal conduc-
tivity value and insulation cost for Chennai city is given in Table 3. Lower the thermal conductivity
reduces the heat transfer to the room through the wall surface. This reduces the electrical energy
consumption required for space cooling.
The thermal conductivity of the expanded polystyrene is high when compared to foamed
polystyrene and foamed PVC, therefore the annual electrical energy consumption and the annual
energy cost is high when compared to the other two materials. Due to this, the optimuminsulation
thickness for expanded polystyrene is high when compared to foamed polystyrene and foamed
PVC. The cost of expanded polystyrene is very low when compared to the other two materials.
Therefore, for the expanded polystyrene, the annual life savings is high and payback period is low,
when compared to other two materials for all the ve cities. Therefore, the expanded polystyrene
seems to be a suitable material for all ve cities.
5. Conclusion
InIndia, minimisationof energyconsumptionfor buildingcoolingis one of the prime requirements
for building energy conservation. In this study, the use of insulation on the inner surface of building
walls is analysed. The optimum insulation thickness, the annual life savings, annual energy cost
and the payback period for the various cities, using different insulation materials at different base
temperatures are calculated using life cycle cost analysis over the lifetime of 20 years. The results
showthat the insulation material and the expanded polystyrene is suitable for all cities with respect
to high annual life savings and low payback period.
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