Thermal modelling of an industrial building with solar reflective coatings on external surfaces: case studies in China and Australia

Most industrial buildings rely almost entirely on air-conditioning systems to provide thermal comfort to staff and customers who use the premises. As an alternative to this active approach, passive strategy is recommended to either fulfil this task or to help reduce energy consumption of air-conditioning systems already installed. Applying solar reflective coatings on external surfaces of the building, a key passive strategy, appears to offer an effective solution to reduce solar heat, especially during the summer, penetrating through the building fabric. This article discusses a study that uses computer thermal modelling to investigate the effectiveness of this strategy and to explore its contribution to operational energy savings. Detailed mathematical modelling in accordance with thermodynamic and heat transfer theories through the building fabric is illustrated and solutions to the mathematical problems are presented. The study consists of a comparison between two scenarios (normal coating and reflective coating) in three locations in China and one in Australia. The application of solar reflective coatings on external surfaces of the building produces energy savings for all the four locations and is found to be more beneficial in hot climates where there is a considerable need to reduce summer solar gains.

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