Pros and cons of using structurally insulated panels in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) are extensively used in energy efficient buildings all over the world. SIPs can be simply introduced as a building material consisting of an insulating layer in between two structural wythes. Since SIP technology is fairly new to Sri Lanka, only few studies have been carried out to check thesuitability of SIP technology in Sri Lanka. SIPs can be used as walling materials, roofing materials and for slab construction instead of conventional building materials such as burnt clay bricks, cement sand blocks or conventional reinforced concrete slabs. This paper describes an experiment carried out to determine the thermal performance of SIP wall, Cement block wall and Burnt clay brick wall model houses. Further,this presents the results obtained from a computer simulation regarding the cooling loads required for above mentioned models. A cost comparison has been done to evaluate the costs of various wall construction techniques used in Sri Lanka. As a whole, this paper describes pros and cons of using SIPs in Sri Lanka.