Improvement temperatures of a studio apartment through judicious choice of materials and eco building materials under an arid climate - Case study Ghardaïa

Abstract

The aim of this study is to approximate the thermal comfort in the home by the judicious use of building materials and the reinforcement of the envelope by the thermal insulation using eco materials. Our task was to investigate minutely the construction materials that are specific to the site and commercially available on the Algerian market under hot climatic conditions. EnergyPlus software was used for energy simulation with "OpenStudio plugin for SketchUp" as an interface. Results indicate that the most suitable building material in terms of thermal comfort for cold seasons and even hot seasons is brick. The simulation allowed us to discover that insulation of the roof is an advantage not to be neglected, as long as it has a considerable influence on the interior temperatures, and it makes it possible to reduce remarkably the fluctuations of the temperature. Eco-friendly material, both environmentally and energy-efficient, is an inevitable alternative to any construction. Our choice has focused on the air gap, if this could be proved experimentally, will therefore be profitable even economically since the cost of an air gap is virtually zero.