Effect of Clay’s Multilayer Composites Material on the Energy Efficiency of Buildings

Abstract

Climate change and resource and energy depletion are already impacting ecosystems and societies around the world. As a result, environmental sustainability has become one of humanity’s priority challenges. This study aims to use ecological multilayer material in order to reduce the impact of carbon and energy needs of heating in severe climates in which people die each year from cold. The combination of the investigated multilayer material gives a low thermal transmittance (U = 0.361 W·m−2·K−1). A simulation using the software TRNSYS was established to estimate the yearly heating and cooling needs in the building with the developed multilayer material in a semiarid climate. The yearly energy demands for heating and cooling were compared to a normal wall with conventional bricks; 47% of energy was saved by the use of the multilayer material wall. The use of the multilayer material permits a low ratio of energy needs of 24 KWh/m2/year for cooling needs and 43 KWh/m2/year for heating.