Visit the Energy Systems Laboratory Homepage.
Impact of Thermally Insulated Floors
Abstract
Presently in Kuwait the code of practice for energy
conservation in the air conditioned buildings
implemented by the Ministry of Electricity and Water
(MEW) which has been in effect since 1983 has no
consideration taken for thermally insulating the floors
of residential and commercial buildings with
unconditioned basements. As a part of a comprehensive
research program conducted by the Building and
Energy Technologies Department of Kuwait Institute
for Scientific Research for revision of the code this
paper analyzes the effect of using un-insulated floors
on the peak cooling demand and energy consumption
of a middle income residential private villa and a onebedroom
multi-story apartment building in Kuwait.
These floors typically separate air-conditioned spaces
with ambient environment or un-conditioned spaces.
This was done using the ESP-r, a building's energy
simulation program, in conjunction with typical
meteorological year for Kuwait.
The study compared such typical floors with three
types of insulated floors. It was found that using an R-
10 floors in multi-story apartment buildings greatly
reduce both the peak cooling demand as well as the
energy consumption by about 15%, whereas only
minimal savings (about 4%) were detected in the case
of the residential villas.
Citation
Alghimlas, F.; Omar, E. A. (2004). Impact of Thermally Insulated Floors. Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu); Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /4624.