Time-lag analysis of potential waste materials as thermal insulation in tropical climate: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

Energy consumption has shown that residential building is among the main contributors of energy demand. Besides, the harsh climatic conditions have causes substantial amount of energy which contributes indirectly towards the impact on carbon emission to the nations. Hence, this research utilised the potential agricultural wastes materials that is potential for insulate the thermal building performance. The outer and inner surface temperature has been measured on selected seven (7) type of wastes material from agricultural and processing sector every 30 minutes from 0900hr to 1800hr for a day in order to determine the decrement factors (DF), average daily time-lag for heat transfer as one of the thermal insulation properties. Results on the time-lag for all selected potential waste materials as thermal insulation whereas sugarcane bagasse is the lowest 107.5 minutes, followed by both coffee grounds and coconut husk with 130 minutes and wood wool with 132.5 minutes. Meanwhile, empty fruit bunch, coconut fibre and pineapple leave with time-lag of 140 minutes, 142.5 minutes and 145 minutes respectively are the highest time-lag occurred. Generally, the lowest Tis is the better the thermal performance therefore, coconut fibre with smaller DF, larger LT but slightly higher Tis than EFB (32°C) which is 32.2 °C might be the suitable material use as thermal insulation.