Analysis of Thermal Performance Improvement of Residential Building: A Case Study in an Urban Bhutan

This paper presents an estimate of the level of energy efficiency that could be achieved through improvement in building envelope. A residential flat in Thimphu, Bhutan was simulated in transient simulation software TRNSYS with measured weather data. From the simulation, it was observed that the thermal energy demand of the flat could be reduced between 11-64% by insulating the building envelopes under various scenarios. The simulation result suggests that attic insulation must be the first method to look into while deciding for retrofitting a poorly performing building as it could result in a high reduction of annual heating energy demand. The simulation shows that maximum heating energy demand reduction (64%) could be achieved when attic and wall insulation was used. Keywords- Building thermal performance, TRNSYS, energy analysis, energy savings, thermal energy DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-27-14 Publication date: September 30 th 2020