Energy performance and economic viability of nano aerogel glazing and nano vacuum insulation panel in multi-story office building

• Multi-story office building with polystyrene, nanogel and nano VIP insulations.
• Energy performance and economic feasibility of various options are assessed.
• Nanogel glazing alone could save 14% energy compared to DG window.
• Nano VIP in wall and roof is neither energy-efficient nor economical.
• Polystyrene-insulated wall and roof with nanogel glazing window is the best option.

The present study has focused to assess the energy performance and economic feasibility of nano aerogel (nanogel) glazing and nano vacuum insulation panel (VIP) when applied to a multi-story office building located in the Dhahran region of Saudi Arabia. The energy performance of the building was studied in cases such as i) without thermal insulation, ii) with conventional insulation (in wall and roof) and double-glazed (DG) window and iii) with nanogel glazing (in window) and nano VIP (for wall and roof). The building model was built in Autodesk Revit (2015), and the energy simulation was performed by Ecotect software (2011). A cost analysis was also performed to assess the economic feasibility of the various insulation options. The results show that, replacing the DG windows with nanogel glazing achieves a saving of 14% in the annual energy consumption of the building, while polystyrene foam and nano VIP in walls and roof yield savings of 0.5% and 0.8% respectively. The energy saving potential is almost independent of the relative humidity and occupancy, and is sensitive to the set-point temperature. For the study building, the best option in terms of both energy performance and cost is to provide nanogel glazing in windows and polystyrene insulation in walls and roof.