Thermal insulation of cooled spaces in high rise residential buildings in Hong Kong

Thermal insulation is seldom applied to the fabric of high rise residential buildings in Hong Kong. Where it is used, it is placed in the fabric compo nent at the side that faces the outdoors or non-air conditioned spaces, suc h as kitchens, bathrooms and entrance lobbies. The paper reports on the res ults of an investigation into the effects of including a thermal insulation layer in the fabric components that separate cooled spaces from the outdoo rs and from non-air conditioned spaces. In the investigation, the effects o f placing the insulation layer at the indoor side, in the middle and at the outdoor side, or the side of the adjacent non-air conditioned space, of th e fabric components were evaluated and compared. For the doors, the insulat ion layer was always put between the two face panels. The detailed building heat transfer simulation program HTB2 was employed to calculate the yearly cooling loads and the maximum cooling demand in the year of two typical fl ats in a high rise residential building. The simulation predictions show th at the highest reduction in the yearly cooling load, by 9.1%, and in the ma ximum cooling demand, by 10.5%, would be achieved when a 50 mm thick therma l insulation layer was placed at the indoor side of the walls that enclose the cooled spaces. However, increasing the thickness of the insulation laye r beyond 50 mm and of the concrete layer to above 100 mm would only lead to insignificant further reductions in the yearly cooling load and the yearly maximum cooling demand. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .