Effect of cellulose fibre based insulation on thermal performance of buildings

Cellulose fibre based insulation can be employed to maintain comfortable indoor conditions inside buildings and to improve energy efficiency. The huge energy consumption for space cooling can be decreased by applying cellulose fibre as thermal insulation in the buildings because of its low thermal conductivity. Cellulose fibre insulation is made from recycled paper fibres and inorganic additives are used to prevent mould growth and increase fire resistance. Here an effort has been made to examine the suitability of cellulose fibre as an insulation for buildings under static, dynamic heat transfer conditions, embodied energy and environmental pollution aspects are also examined. Cellulose fibre insulation has lower value of embodied energy and environmental impact as compared to other insulation materials. Cellulose fibre has lower embodied energy than the conventional and unconventional insulation materials. Cellulose fibre can be utilized in the buildings for maintaining a steady humidity value in the indoor air. Cellulose fibre board has the mean thermal conductivity equivalent to materials like cork, polyurethane, recycled glass, recycled cotton and glass wool. The cellulose fibre board has incredibly low mean thermal diffusivity than other materials like cork, polyurethane, recycled glass, recycled cotton and glass wool. Consequently cellulose fibre has similar thermal performance under static heat transfer conditions to the best insulation materials and the thermal performance of cellulose fibre for insulating buildings under dynamic heat transfer conditions will be much better than other insulation materials. Cellulose fibre is also environment friendly, renewable, recyclable and has lower embodied energy. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Second International Conference on Aspects of Materials Science and Engineering (ICAMSE 2021).