Analysis of heat gain reduction through roof by providing coconut shell insulation for typical Indian climate

Energy saved is energy generated. The power consumption for comfortable housing is ever increasing, which is adding addition burden to the power crisis of the world. Typical Indian housing has concrete roofing of 150 mm thick reinforced cement concrete (RCC) with or without weathering course (WC) of 75-100 mm thick lime brick mortar. To provide affordable comfortable living, a new method of insulation with naturally available material, coconut shell is used, which reduce the major heat gain through the roof of the building. This concept is more economical and easy to adapt in almost all residential buildings. The transient heat transfers across various types of roof structures for typical Indian climatic conditions were studied using fundamental principles of heat transfer using Mat Lab software. The energy savings obtained with coconut shell insulation of roof is found to be 40-85% when compared with conventional RCC roof due to the presence of air in the coconut shell insulation.