A Study on Environmental Impact of Insulation Thickness of Poultry Building Walls

Abstract

In this paper, the optimum insulation thicknesses, energy savings, payback periods and emission rates of CO<inf>2</inf> were determined for poultry buildings in the cities of Antalya, Samsun, Ankara and Erzurum, located in different climates of Turkey. The calculations were made considering five different fuels (coal, fuel-oil, natural gas, LPG and electricity) and two different insulation materials, extruded polystyrene (XPS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS). As a result of this study, it was determined that XPS insulation materials offered an optimum thickness ranging from 1.20 to 8.10 cm, provided an energy savings between 15.38% and 69.90%, and required payback periods between 3.02 and 0.90 years, while EPS insulation materials offered an optimum thickness ranging between 2.00 and 11.80 cm, provided an energy savings between 21.82% and 70.61%, and required payback periods between 2.64 and 0.78 years, depending on the cities and fuel types. The lowest values of reduction of CO<inf>2</inf> emission (39.82%) were obtained for Antalya when XPS and natural gas are used as optimum insulation material while Erzurum has the highest value (83.98%) for EPS and LPG. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd