INFLUENCE OF THERMAL INSULATION THICKNESS ON HEATING ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Abstract

The problem of energy stability in the last few decades has become the most important problem of the world economy and the social system. Extensive efforts have been undertaken to alleviate global warming of the earth caused by emission of CO2 in atmosphere. These emissions are generated by intensive burning of fossil fuels to satisfy the growing energy needs of humanity. The EU obliges its members to continuously increase energy efficiency by adopting numerous directives in order to achieve greater energy efficiency and reduce existing environmental imbalances on Earth.The building envelope is a critical component for energy losses and heating energy consumption. So it is very it is important to design energy efficient buildings or implement the principles for improvement energy efficiency of already existing buildings. This paper shows the real consumption of energy for heating in tipicaly Serbian building, with variable thermal insulation thickness. The investigated building is located in Kragujevac, Serbia. The building is simulated in software EnergyPlus, while Open Studio plug-in for Google SketchUp was used for building design. The paper also shows the buliding energy rate, depending on the thermal insulation thickness.