Determination of Optimum Insulation Thickness for Building Walls in Iran Using Life Cycle Cost Analysis

Air-Conditioning (AC) systems are responsible for a considerable portion of the energy consumption in buildings located in high cooling load requiring regions of Iran. In addition, the heat flow through the buildingschr('39') external walls plays a major role in cooling load estimations for the countrychr('39')s hot regions. Therefore, application of insulation materials in external walls has gained more interest in recent years. In the present research, a systematic approach for optimizing the insulation material thickness was developed and applied for regions in Iran requiring high cooling load namely, Bandar abbas and Bushehr through utilizing life cycle cost analysis. Moreover, a correlation between optimum thickness and thermal conductivity of insulation materials was recommended for the buildings located in the mentioned hot regions of the country. The study showed that the relationship between the optimum insulation thickness and thermal conductivity has a non-linear trend and obeys a polynomial function.