Publications

The building envelope is a predominant component in the energy consumption of architectural space. The lower energy efficiency the envelope is, the higher energy consumption is required to maintain thermal comfort in architectural space. This paper aims to explore the effect of using potato agro waste on the thermal and structural characteristics of concrete hollow blocks. Valorizing agro waste in building blocks is not novel, yet, targeting highly engineered materials like CNP leverages nano-scale reinforcement, and thus achieving enhanced properties with less materials. Using quantitative experimental methods, CNP modified concrete specimens are compared to control specimens. At 0.20-wt% and 0.40-wt% of CNP shows significant improvement in thermal conductivity. As for the compressive, flexural and tensile strength, the addition of 0.20-wt% CNP showed significant improvement, while that of 0.4wt% recorded values similar to control mix. The initial and secondary rate of absorption were remarkably improved for mix with 0.2wt% of CNP. The optimum amount of CNP to be added was thus 0.2wt% CNP, by which the results were used to perform environmental simulation using DesignBuilder and SimaPro. The percentage of dissatisfied people for PMV between -0.5 and 0.5 is less when using modified hollow blocks for the walls. The use of potato agro waste modified concrete hollow blocks reduces the zone sensible heating and zone sensible cooling. This leads to reduced loads on the system. The space is thus said to require less energy to optimize its comfort and can be described as more energy efficient.