Cool room insulation
Keeping the “coolness”
Kenneth Lekashman – Soraya Manzor
6/10/2014
To design and analyze different insulation materials
that use locally available resources in Kenya and
preferably Agricultural Waste.
Cool Room Insulation Design
Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Background ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Effects of Temperature on Fresh Horticultural Products ................................................................ 3
Insulation Materials and their Limitations ...................................................................................... 4
Agricultural Waste: Rice Hulls ......................................................................................................... 4
Thermal Conductivity and our Target Value: .................................................................................. 5
Design Process ................................................................................................................................... 6
Design considerations and criteria .................................................................................................. 6
Concept evaluation/Idea selection ................................................................................................. 7
Methodology of Construction ......................................................................................................... 8
Methodology of Testing................................................................................................................... 11
R-value Background ...................................................................................................................... 11
D-lab Field Test Procedure ............................................................................................................ 12
Results .............................................................................................................................................. 14
Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Future recommendations ............................................................................................................... 17
Appendix 1: R-value testing records and calculations ................................................................. 18
Appendix 2: Pictures taken during the construction .................................................................... 19
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 20
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Introduction
The agricultural sector in Kenya provides income for over 75% of the population and
generates nearly 30% of the nation’s GDP (Gubbins, D-Lab 1 Report), but it is estimated that
greater than 30% of produce is lost to spoilage before it reaches consumers. The loss is driven by
many factors whose relative contributions are difficult to quantify, but include: appropriate
handling and post-harvest practices, counter-productive policies - such as applying levies per
package, rather than by weight, which encourages use of large bags, overfilling, and finally a lack
of cold storage access across the supply chain (Gubbins, D-Lab 1 Report). As a result farmers must
sell their produce immediately after harvest, weakening their ability to negotiate prices and
resulting in inconsistent and suboptimal income (Gubbins, D-Lab 1 Report). Issues of postharvest
loss extend beyond the farmgate and exist at every step throughout the cool chain. Within this
dilemma exists opportunity in the horticultural sector in Kenya. Addressing the causes of
postharvest loss will enhance profits for farmers, increase consumer access to nutritious foods,
and reduce the environmental impact of the agricultural sector meaning that adding a reliable
form of cold-storage could be a potential game-changer.
Researchers at the University of Nairobi, in collaboration with the Horticulture
Collaborative Research Support Program (Hort CRSP) at UC Davis have begun a feasibility study on
using a low cost cooling system known as the CoolBot to reduce post- harvest loss at its most
vulnerable stage, immediately after harvest. The proposed innovation seeks to address the
challenges at the farmgate of the horticultural commodities value chain. However, the CoolBot
technology is only part of the equation, the other issues being energy management, farming
practices, and finally the insulation and structure of the building to hold the horticultural products.
Our group looked at and analyzed various potential insulation solutions using agricultural waste.
Based upon a D-Lab 1 report, talking with our mentor Jim Thompson, and time-constraints we
honed in on one specific method of a mixture of Portland Cement with rice hulls. While other
possible insulative methods were considered and will be discussed in this report, all of our testing
and prototyping was limited to this method.
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Background
Effects of Temperature on Fresh Horticultural Products
In Kenya, the storage of fresh horticultural products at ambient temperatures is limited
from a few days to a week. This means that instead of dealing with pests and disease which are
huge problems in countries like the United States, the issue becomes more centered around the
freshness and mitigating damage to the product in transit. Horticultural products left in the sun
can reach 13-16°C above ambient temperatures. Ambient temperatures are well over 30° C in
much of Kenya. This has the effect of increasing deterioration over 20 times of that of 0 °C
(Gubbins, D-Lab 1 Report) For every ten degrees, a product’s post-harvest life is halved. Low
temperatures reduce metabolic processes that incur spoilage from disease and ethylene, this
makes the prospect of cheap cooling technology very attractive.For optimized cost-effectiveness,
cool rooms should be built in places where the most damage occurs and the most produce is
passing through on its way to markets. If placed at these vital junctions, losses to heat and sun
damage will be minimized, allowing farmers to yield higher profits from their produce.
Case Study: Ghana
An example of this in practice already exists. In Ghana, the CoolBot cold room was
compared to a traditional storage shed used for several months of storage for onions. Losses were
reduced from 30 to 5% and market value increased from $ 0.50/kg for onions sold immediately
after harvest to $ 2.00/kg for onions sold four months later during the off season (Roy). The costs
for constructing an insulated 20-m2 room of 6 MT capacity, equipped with a window style air
conditioner (10,000 BTU) and a CoolBot controller ($ 300) totaled $ 4300. Recurring costs were $
580 for electricity costs for initial cooling ($ 80/MT at $ 0.09/kWh) and cold storage at 1°C for 4
months ($ 25/month at $ 0.09/kWh). A return on Investment occurred within a single season and
the attempt was immediately profitable (Roy). The high value of stored onions sold during the off
season provided a gross return of $ 10,820 compared to $2100 for onions sold immediately after
harvest, for an additional profit of $ 8720 per 6 MT load (Roy). Even if a back-up 3.5 kW generator
is required, the cost ($ 4900 plus fuel) could be covered by only 2 or 3 uses of the CoolBot
equipped cold room (Roy).
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Insulation Materials and their Limitations
Current Insulation Materials and Environmental Concerns
In order to use these Cool-bot systems efficiently and economically, the actual physical
structure needs building envelopes that can minimize the ingress of heat and moisture from the
exterior environment. For this reason, thermal insulation of the external walls and roof is essential
for a building using a Cool-bot modified air conditioning unit. Common choices of thermal
insulation are fibreglass, rock wool and mineral wool (Infante). Research has indicated that there
are environmental hazards associated with these materials. The small particles from fibreglass and
glass wool insulation can cause health hazard and respiratory or skin irritant (Infante). Breathing
fibres may irritate the airways resulting in coughing and throat irritation. The Seventh Annual
Report on Carcinogens lists glass fibres of respirable size as a substance "reasonably anticipated to
cause cancer in humans” and concludes that and concludes that on a fiber-per-fiber basis, glass
fibers may be as potent or even more potent than asbestos (Infante). Considering the fact that the
current popular insulation materials have negative side effects from the production stage until the
end of their useful lifetime it becomes is necessary to search for alternative insulation materials
which can satisfy the new standards for environmental and health impacts.
Agricultural Waste: Rice Hulls
One possible alternative exists in agricultural waste. Throughout the world, more than 100
million tonnes of rice hulls are generated each year (Panyakaew). Rice is also processed on a daily
basis meaning that there is year round access to it. The thermal conductivity of rice hull has been
measured using equipment built and operated in accordance with ASTM methods and this
suggests that thermal conductivities of rice hulls are between 0.046 – 0.057 W/mK (Panyakaew).
These values compare well with the thermal conductivity of excellent typical insulating materials
which are either more expensive or have associated environmental concerns. For these reasons,
rice hulls became our primary source of agricultural waste in our brainstorming design and later
prototypes.
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Thermal Conductivity and our Target Valu e:
When considering any material as a new insulator one of the biggest properties is the
thermal conductivity of the substance. Thermal conductivity is simply a measure of the amount of
heat transfer that a material can conduct at different temperatures. When it comes to insulation
materials one is looking for a low thermal conductivity. The lower the conductivity the better the
material is able to act as a barrier to temperature changes outside of the insulated structure
(Gubbins, D-Lab 1 Report). The other property that is analyzed is density. Generally most buildings
only have a finite amount of space for which to fit insulation material. The culmination of these
two properties are combined into the R-value. The R-value then becomes a basis for which the
thermal resistance of different materials are compared (Gubbins, D-Lab 1 Report). In general, the
higher the R-value, the better the material tends to act as an insulator. As mentioned above, rice
hulls performed an R-value test between .046 -.057 W/mK. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) which is
the white foam you see in disposable coffee cups and beer coolers. has a nominal R-value of 4 per
inch (Bailies). This became the target-value for our testing and design.
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Design Process
Design considerations and criteria
Since the problem was identified as mentioned above, we listed the main considerations
and put them into a decision matrix (Table 1) to evaluate our possible designs and decided which
one would be the best according to the most relevant for our purpose.
Design Considerations:
1. Insulation material has to have a high R-value, better than EPS foam.
2. In order to increase the R-value, the insulation material has to be able to trap air in as part
of its structure.
Insulation material has to be water resistant.
Insulation material has to be able to avoid air moisture condensation.
Insulation material has to be non-flammable.
Insulation material has to be wind resistance.
Insulation material has to be locally available.
Insulation material, if not commercially available, has to be made out of local resources.
Insulation material, if not commercially available, has to be made by local inhabitants
according to their technical skills training.
10. Insulation material has to be low cost as possible.
11. Insulation material has to be malleable as possible to adjust to the different building
options.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Table 1: Decision matrix according to the most relevant design considerations
PRODUCT
Cost
W
Skills
W
R-Value
W
W
4
Climate
resistant
3
W
Total
3
Ag.
Waste
4
Composite
rice hull
boards
Concrete
slabs with
loose fill rice
hulls
Wooven
mesh and
loose fill rice
hulls
Adobe
Tetrapack
4
3
4
2
0
2
37
3
3
3
2
0
4
4
3
3
2
33
3
3
5
2
0
4
3
3
4
2
36
5
3
3
3
4
3
2
2
0
0
4
4
2
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
35
31
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Criteria:
The criteria to test the insulation material prototypes were decided to be the R-value of
the material, moisture content, flammability and cost. The metrics and target values for these
criteria are detailed in Table 2.
Table 2: Criteria, metrics and target values for design
Criteria
R-value greater than EPS foam
Moisture content
Flammability
Cost
Metric
ft2*ºF*h/BTU*in
mg of water
Development of a flame
US$/m2
Target value
3.85-4.0 (EPS foam)
Less than construction value
Non
3.125
Concept evaluation/Idea selection
At the time we evaluated our possible product designs, the decision yielded by the
decision matrix was to design composite rice hulls boards. This decision was made without
knowing exactly the R-value of the product to be constructed. The options we brainstormed for
the construction of composite rice hulls boards were:
a) Rice hulls and resin
b) Rice hulls and cement
c) Rice hulls and latex paint
After several conversation with both mentors (Kurt Kornbluth and Jim Thompson), we
decided to build the boards out of rice hulls and cement, now called hybrid material. Part of this
decision was based on the small scale prototype that Jim Thompson gave us and his desire of find
out how this material would work in different proportions and under compressibility addition.
The next step in our decision was to put or not another material in order to provide a
support structure to the rice hulls board. These options, later constructed, were:
a) SIP1 style: The panels consist of a hybrid material core sandwiched between two structural
facings, typically oriented strand board (OSB).
1
SIP: Structural Insulated Panels. http://www.sips.org/
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Cool Room Insulation Design
b) Concrete support: Board made out of three similar thickness layers. The first layer consists
of a concrete layer followed by a layer of hybrid material and finally covered by another
layer of concrete.
c) Mesh/concrete support: Board made out of three layers. The first layer consists of a thin
layer of concrete with a sheet of mesh immersed in it, followed by a thicker layer of hybrid
material and finally covered by another thin layer of concrete with a sheet of mesh
immersed in it.
d) Just hybrid material
Methodology of Construction
The construction process took place at the Student Farm at UC Davis Campus during the
month of May 2014.
1. The first stage of construction was the construction of the molds. After a brainstorming
with Professor Kurt Kornbluth, we decided to build molds made out of 2x4 slabs of wood
in a 12x12 square inches of light shape. See schematics in Figure 1.
Materials: 2x4 in slabs of wood, 4 in self-drilling screws for wood, driller and screwdriver bits.
Figure 1: Molds construction schematic
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Cool Room Insulation Design
2. The first prototypes were mainly constructed to learn how to treat the materials and how
to add strength to the boards according to the concept evaluation mentioned above.
The general construction step by step procedure is detailed in Table 3.
Table 3: Board construction general procedure
Process Stage
Materials & Quantities
Explanation
Rice hulls preparation
Bucket
1 part of rice hulls + 1 part of water
Bucket
Driller with a paint mixer attachment
1 part of cement + 0.5 part of water
Bucket with the prepared cement
Driller with a paint mixer attachment
Let it soak in a bucket for half an hour
Pouring into molds
Wooden molds
Dry cement (less than a handful)
Sparse a little of dry cement on the
surface at the bottom of the mold. Then
pour the mix into the mold at the
thickness desired.
Setting for drying
Flat board
Set all the molds (before pouring) in a
flat surface that can be move to a place
to let it dry.
Unmolding
Drill with screwdriver bit or just a
simple screwdriver
Take off 4 of the screws that are
attaching one of the sides of the mold.
Then remove the slab piece carfully. At
last, remove the rest of the mold by
lifting it.
Cement preparation
Mixing
Mix it until it gets homogeneous.
Pour the prepared rice hulls into the
prepared cement one handful by
handful
The exact measurements that were used in the prototype construction were:
Per 1/4 batch
-8L of rice hulls + 8L of water
-2L of cement + 1L of water
Per 1/3 batch
-9L of rice hulls + 9L of water
-3L of cement + 1.5L of water
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Cool Room Insulation Design
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Methodology of Testing
R-value Background
The R-value Rule requires that all types of insulation (except aluminum foil) be tested in
accordance with one of four standard test methods defined by ASTM, the American Society of
Testing and Materials. The rule requires that R-value tests be conducted at a mean temperature of
75°F (23.9°C) and a temperature differential of 50°F (27.8°C). This means that insulation is usually
tested with the cold side at 50°F (10°C) and the warm side at 100°F (37.8°C) (Bailies).
The four R-value tests are:
1. ASTM C 177, Standard Test Method for Steady-State Heat Flux Measurements and
Thermal Transmission Properties by Means of the Guarded-Hot-Plate Apparatus.
“This test measures the steady-state heat flux through homogeneous flat specimens. Two test
specimens (as identical as possible) are placed on both sides of a ‘guarded’ hot plate and in
contact on the other side with a ‘cold surface assembly.’ This test requires the establishment of
steady-state conditions and the measurement of heat flow in one direction. It is used to measure
the thermal resistance of thin-sliced test specimens at short time intervals (up to six months).
However, its measurements can be used to estimate the predicted aged R-value for longer
periods, typically 2.5 to 40 years” (Knowles).
2. ASTM C 518, Standard Test Method for Steady-State Heat Flux Measurements and
Thermal Transmission Properties by Means of the Heat Flow Meter Apparatus.
“This test measures steady-state thermal transmission through flat slab specimens using a heat
flow meter. One test specimen is placed between a cold plate and a hot plate. (One or more heat
flux transducers can be employed.) As with ASTM C 177, it is used to measure the thermal
resistance of thin-sliced test specimens at short time intervals, but its findings can be used as the
foundation for aged values” (Knowles).
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Cool Room Insulation Design
3. ASTM C 976, Standard Test Method for Thermal Performance of Building Assemblies by
Means of a Calibrated Hot Box.
“The calibrated hotbox method is especially suited for large non-homogeneous specimens such as
building structures and composite assemblies. It can also be used for measurements of individual
building elements such as windows and doors. The chamber can be configured for attics and floors
or wall assemblies” (Knowles).
4. ASTM C 1303, Standard Test Method for Estimating the Long-Term Change in the
Thermal Resistance of Un-faced Rigid Closed-Cell Plastic Foams by Slicing and Scaling
Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions. (This test actually is an estimate employing
short-term measurements to predict R-values of foam plastics over a longer period, and
not an actual measurement).
“This test allows for estimates of long-term change in thermal resistance of un-faced foam plastic
by reducing the sample thickness to accelerate aging under controlled laboratory conditions. Some
products, such as polyisocyanurate (polyiso) board with facers and spray polyurethane foam (SPF),
may be inappropriate for this method due to their non-homogenic nature, and their adherence to
facers or substrates” (Knowles).
R-values reported from tests can vary depending on how the samples were prepared, their
thickness, and the type of apparatus used. With the various testing methods available, there is
bound to be confusion over why there is no singular way universally accepted for measuring
insulation R-values. Unfortunately, there is no one test that works best for all products. Instead,
we are left with the process of determining the most appropriate methods, sample preparations,
and conditioning procedures that are accurate, reproducible, and relevant to specific material’s
actual field performance (Knowles).
D-lab Field Test Procedure
Knowing that adhering to the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards
requires very specific conditions that we could not replicate in the D-Lab workshop; we came up
with our own test to see how our cement-rice hull mixture insulation panels compared with EPS
12
Cool Room Insulation Design
foam. The summary of the test is as follows, essentially we wanted to take a block of ice, put it in a
bucket which had a hole in the bottom, with the insulation panel over the top working as a lid, and
then measure the amount of water that melted from the ice block at certain time intervals. We
would measure until the ice melt intervals had become constant, which in our testing occurred
after approximately 1 hour. The test was later modified to using ice cubes instead of an ice block
which would be created simply by filling up our buckets with water then and letting them freeze,
as we did not have access to a large enough freezer to be able to hold 10 different buckets. The
buckets themselves were actually cylindrical styrofoam coolers meant to be used for drinks and
refreshments. We cut them to 4 inches in height, so as to reduce the amount of air that would be
present in the test and impact our results. We then took a blowtorch and heated up a screwdriver
to make a hole in the bottom of the bucket for water to leak out. Our test was conducted indoors
rather than outdoors because the sun’s radiation would add an additional variable into the
equation, and our test had enough variables as is and we wanted to limit one we could. We then
filled the buckets to the brim with ice cubes, and set them tilted with a measuring cup below
them. Eight of the buckets were insulation panels that were 4:1 rice to concrete, 3:1 rice to
concrete, compressed vs uncompressed and a series of replicates for each of these. We labeled
the insulation panels accordingly. The other two buckets were one being covered with .5” of EPS
foam (which has a known R-value of 3.85-4.2 per inch) which was our target and open air. These
two were meant as controls. The test began by setting measuring cups below and allowing melted
ice water to start draining into the cups. Since there were only two of us, we were forced to
measure the ice melt at time intervals that were individual, because we could not measure them
all at the same time until the very end. Perhaps the largest flaw with the test is that approximately
60% of the area of the testing apparatus was the same EPS foam for all 10 buckets. Our insulation
panels, and controls only represented approximately 40% of the area of the testing apparatus, and
this without a doubt impacted our results. Additionally, evaporation obviously impacted the
amount of water at the end of the test. Other flaws might include there not being a consistent
mass and amount of ice, because although the buckets were all filled, the ice cubes themselves
were of various shapes and sizes and could potentially have more or less room for air which could
impact the results. Our test was very much a cursory estimate to see if the prototypes were even
viable.
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Results
The measurements taken along the test are detailed in Appendix 1 for future discussion of testing
validation. The final measurements are plotted in Table 4 as it follows.
Water volume, mL
Final melted water volume
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
mL
3,O
C1
4R
3,C,O
4,O
4,C,R
3,R
C2
(Open)
3,C,R
4,C,O
95
78
80
90
89
91
92
135
85
115
Figure 2:Test results (rough)
The final measurements allowed us to see the main differences among the prototypes and more
important, compare all of them with the EPS foam control as well as the “open” control.
To calculate the R-value, equation 1 was used in order to determine a value comparable with that
found in the literature for EPS foam (Target value)
Equation 1
The results for each prototype are listed and plotted in Table 4 and Figure 3 respectively.
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Table 4: R-value values
2.000
1.800
1.600
1.400
1.200
1.000
0.800
0.600
0.400
0.200
0.000
1.794
1.749
1.554
1.473
1.572
1.537
1.646
1.521
1.217
1.036
3,O
C1
4R
3,C,O
4,O
4,C,R
3,R
C2
(Open)
3,C,R
4,C,O
R (ft2*°F*h/BTU*in)
Figure 3: Test results (R-value calculation)
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Conclusions
In conclusion, our limited test proved that it actually worked and yielded some interesting
results. Despite the fact that approximately 60% of the structure was the same for each testsample, we saw a significant difference in the amount of water melted in our sample with no
insulation lid in comparison to either our control of EPS foam or our eight rice-concrete samples.
EPS Foam has been experimentally tested under the ASTM standards of R-value and is supposed to
perform in the range of 3.85-4.2 per inch. After calculating backward from the amount of water
melted, we found that our .5” of EPS foam performed at approximately 1.8 ft^2 *˚F*h/BTU*in.
This is roughly where we expected it to be based off our sample. Our best performing sample
performed almost as well at 1.7495 ft^2 *˚F*h/BTU*in which was just under the EPS foam
sample. In terms of the other variables that we were testing, we saw no real performance
increases from either the change of the 3:1 ratio of rice to concrete as opposed to 4:1, and
compressed vs uncompressed. This result yields interesting implications for future tests. One of
the biggest issues we had related to the strength of the samples. As we were working with a very
limited time frame and concrete takes approximately 28 days to reach full strength, and we had to
test our samples after only a week, we experienced significant crumbling on the part of many
samples most noticeably 4, C, O (4:1 ratio, Compressed, Original). This crumbling no doubt
impacted the results significantly as that sample performed not as well as the other samples. We
expected the durability of the panels to be impacted by our earlier decision to build thin for
testing purposes; (we knew we could later use math to find the value of it per inch so we wanted
all of our test samples to be the same height) so we were not too surprised to find our test
samples weaker than some of our earlier, and thicker panels (3”).
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Cool Room Insulation Design
Future recommendations
While the testing revealed that the rice-hull-concrete mixture had comparable thermal
conductivity to EPS foam the work is by no means complete. The first order of business would to
be to create a completely standardized procedure for the mixing process. While in our tests we
recorded how much Portland Cement, Rice, and initial water was added to our mixture there were
many flaws in our procedure. As part of our mixing process the rice was wet with water and was
not left in a for a set period of time or drained for a set period of time. Creating a set period of
time spent in the water, and spent draining would help keep the amount of water more consistent
as this definitely yielded great differences in each prototype. In the actual mixing, our sole tool
was a drill attachment that you would use to mix paint. This was by no means the best tool and
left clumps of concrete around the sides of the bucket which we attempted to fix. The addition of
a better mixing implement even like a cement mixer could potentially create a much better
mixture with less clumps of cement and yield some better results. In addition, while compression
vs uncompressed yielded no real insulation improvement that we could discern, we recommend
that all future samples be compressed. The compressed samples, simply were easier to transport,
and overall had greater physical strength than there uncompressed counterparts. We would also
recommend that even longer than a week be waited to allow the concrete to fully dry, as our
samples became much more durable with time, and the initial handling after only a week made
some structural damages that led to them being very crumbly and not reaching their full strength
potential as the concrete had more time to dry.
In addition our test was performed only one time, and did not give us any real insight into
whether the different ratios played a role in greater or lesser thermal conductivity. Additionally,
testing would be needed to see what is the optimal ratio of cement to rice hulls. Furthermore, our
testing was done with Portland Cement which was acquired at Ace Hardware in Davis. If it is a
possibility, using the cement that is available in Kenya and tailored to their local availability would
be very useful and more applicable for the client. If we were to run the same test again, I would
like to compare the rice-hull-cement mixtures to other known materials like fiberglass, rock wool,
etc, in addition to EPS to see how those insulators compare as well. Even better, would be to take
the samples and send them to a facility which is able to properly test according to the ASTM set Rvalue standards such as, the NAHB Research Center, Greenguard Environmental Institute, or the
17
Cool Room Insulation Design
National Institute of Standards and Technology. Once more initial testing has been done and we
are more confident in our prototypes, sending them to a facility like these would yield great
insight into the real R-value of our products and yield much better data than our limited
experiment that we conducted.
Much more work needs to be done in terms of thinking about the actual construction
technique of using this material in addition to figuring out the structure itself. One possibility could
be to potentially fill some sort of poly-propylene bags used in grain storage with the concrete-rice
mixture. Since we saw no difference between uncompressed vs compressed and our panels were
still quite susceptible to breakage the material definitely needs to be contained in some capacity.
Another possibility could be in the creation of more densely packed, and tighter bricks. If the
strength could be increased through smaller surface area, these bricks might make excellent
building materials. Additionally, since this will most likely be a high mass form of construction, the
ceiling will play a vital role in the final product. With high mass, this means if the sun has much
exposure to the walls, the interior of the cool room will really heat up. If we can limit the suns
exposure through actions such as extending the ceiling perhaps a full meter over the cool room,
this would provide more than ample shade and reduce sun radiation and exposure. Another
element that must be considered is the floor itself. The floor has great potential to provide a great
addition of cooling effects or be a heat sink if it is not also analyzed. Extensive work is needed to
be done on the project, these initial tests only really showed that the technology is worth further
exploring.
18
Appendix 1: R-value testing records and calculations
Appendix 2: Pictures taken during the construction
Cool Room Insulation Design
Bibliography
 Bailies, Allison. "Big News: The R-Value of Insulation Is Not a Constant." Big News: The RValue of Insulation Is Not a Constant. Vanguard Block, 24 Apr. 2013. Web. 02 June 2014.
 Gubbins, Mitchell, and Adrianna Amsden. "Cool Room Insulation." D-Lab(2014): Web. 8
June 2014.
 Infante PF, et al., (1994). Fibrous glass and cancer. American Journal of Industrial
Medicine, 26: p. 559-584.
 Knowles, Mason. "Understanding Insulation R-value."Greenbuildingsolutions.org. IGCC,
2014. Web. 7 June 2014.
 Roy, S.K. "Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Small Scale Horticultural Farmers and
Marketers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – Part 2. Field Trial Results and Identification
of Research Needs for Selected Crops." Http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/. University of California at
Davis, 2012. Web. 7 June 2014.
 S Panyakaew, S Fotios. “Agricultural Waste as Thermal Insulation for Dwellings in
Thailand: Preliminary Results.” PLEA 2008 - 25th Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture. Dublin, October 2008.
Additional Links:
Link of different locations to send to be R-value tested: http://www.naima.org/insulationresources/research-labs-environmental-testing-certification-organizations.html
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