Experimental study on the performance of insulation materials in Mediterranean construction

It is well known that it is necessary to insulate the buildings to decrease the thermal demand and to decrease the use of heating and cooling. Due to the high cost of fossil fuels and to the necessity to reduce CO2 emissions, and also due to the new building regulations more attention is paid to the insulation of buildings. Different insulation materials are available in the market. Usually, they are compared by their thermal conductivity and with theoretical calculations, but there are no experimental comparisons available, where the behavior of such insulation materials in a building is compared over time. This is why the authors started a comparison of three typical insulation materials, polyurethane, polystyrene, and mineral wool. For this purpose, four house-like cubicles were constructed (with a size of 2.4 m × 2.4 m × 2.4 m) and their thermal performance throughout the time was measured. The cubicles were built under a conventional Mediterranean construction system, differing only in the insulation material used. During 2008 and the first months of 2009 the performance of these cubicles was evaluated, and the results are presented in this paper.