Reduction of Energy Consumption by Means of an Efficient Building Envelope in the Mexican Caribbean

The purpose of this thesis was to determine how much energy and money can be saved by implementing thermal insulation on the most common housing projects in Mexico, which stands for most of the population of the country. The research problem is that the housing projects for the average family households, which stands for up to 44.7% of the residential industry, does not include thermal insulation in its design and due to the warm temperatures, air conditioning systems have to be used in order to provide its inhabitants the comfort people need. This leads to high costs and poor sustainability. This thesis analyses the building materials and their thermal conductive properties that are currently used in the housing industry in Mexico and the theoretical application of thermal insulation based on Finnish standards to determine the energy required and its cost to achieve the comfort temperature for the residents of a household to live in. The results of the thesis show that up to 50 % of the energy can be saved if thermal insulation is considered in the design, which means much less energy costs and better building sustainability