Experimental and numerical studies of reducing cooling load of lecture hall

•Reducing cooling load of lecture hall in humid climate has been investigated.•Potential reduction in temperature inside the lecture hall was around 3 °C.•Polyethylene aluminium single bubble insulation material has the potential to reduce the cooling load for a building.

In this paper, the cooling load of a lecture hall in a hot, humid climate requiring sustainable energy consumption is investigated experimentally and numerically. The polyethylene aluminium single bubble (PASB) is used as an insulating material placed on the external wall for the lecture hall with dimensions (15 m × 12 m × 6.6 m) at University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Selangor, Malaysia. The measurements of air temperature, air velocity, relative humidity and the number of students using the lecture hall for the whole month of April 2012 were used as input parameters for the three-dimensional computation of fluid dynamics (CFD). The results show that the potential temperature reduction inside the lecture hall was around 3 °C when using the (PASB) as insulating material, leading to a potential saving of 500 USD per month.