Thermal Performance Evaluation of Roofing Systems and Materials in Malaysian Residential Development

THERMAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF ROOFING

SYSTEMS AND MATERIALS IN MALAYSIAN RESIDENTIAL
DEVELOPMENT

Allen Lau Khin Kiet, Elias Salleh and Lim Chin Haw

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia

elsall06@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Among the major problems of Malaysian residential development is the overheating
of roof space due to inappropriate selection of roofing systems and materials. The aim of this
study is to investigate the effect of commonly-used residential roofing systems and materials on
Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT). The results then will be used to recommend an appropriate
roofing system and materials for optimum thermal performance under Malaysian climate. The first
stage of the study involved an observation survey of the roofing systems and materials of recent
residential developments in Malaysia to establish commonly-used roofing systems and materials.
This was followed by simulations of MRT by using Heat Transfer in Buildings (HTB2) software to
evaluate thermal performance of selected roofing systems and materials. The results of the
observation revealed that concrete roof tiles are the most commonly-used roofing finish, followed
by clay tiles and metal deck. Simulation studies indicate that clay tiles have the best thermal
performance with respect to MRT, followed by concrete tiles and metal deck. For reflective insulation
materials, double-sided aluminium foil is strongly recommended as compared to single sided
aluminium foil which is the most widely-used used in residential development. It is also
recommended that reflective insulation can be used to replace mass insulation materials such as
rockwool due to the higher thermal performance. Hybrid ceiling proved to have the best performance
in reducing thermal radiation into the interior space, followed by plaster board and cement board.
Keywords: residential building, roofing system, thermal performance, mean radiant temperature

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Among the major problems of Malaysian residential development is the overheating of roof spaces
caused by inappropriate selection of roofing systems and materials. For buildings in equatorial
regions with warm and humid climate such as Malaysia, the roof has been said to be a major
source of heat gain. Solar protection of the roof remains one of the main concerns in the thermal
design of buildings in the region (W. Puangsombut et al., 2007; Francois et al., 2004; Olgyay,
1992; Koenigsberger et al., 1980).
Previous studies have shown that in Malaysian houses, roof has a huge impact on the thermal
performance of the whole building (Badrul et al., 2006; Nor, 2005). Due to its geographical location,
Malaysia receives the sun directly overhead most of the day throughout the year. Therefore, major
heat gain of Malaysian houses comes from the roof. Once the heat gets into the roof space, the hot
air heats up the internal structures and surfaces, and the heat is then retained for most of the night.
The excessive heat gained from the sun will be radiated from the roof space to the occupants in
the house through long wave radiation (Koenigsberger et al., 1980). According to previous studies,
around 87% of heat transfer from the roof to occupant is through radiation process, whereby only
around 13% of heat is transferred through conduction and convection (Cowan, 1973), as illustrated

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in Figure 1. The radiant heat received by the occupants in a house can be measured as Mean
Radiant Temperature (MRT).
The Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) is the area-weighted average of all the surface
temperatures in a room, and is affected by the position of the person in relation to the various
surfaces. The larger the surface area and the closer to the person, it will have more influence to an
occupant’s MRT. This explains why the roof plays an important role in determining the overall MRT
of the house, which will have a direct impact on the thermal comfort level of the occupants. According
to Peng Chen (2002), the thermal radiation of roof largely depends on the composition materials.
Inappropriate roofing materials will cause overheating of roof space and therefore excessive heat
will be radiated to the occupants. Unfortunately, there is a general lack of concern on the importance
of the effect of roofing materials on MRT and human comfort level in local residential development.
This is the main cause of the problem of inappropriate use of roofing materials. Therefore, this study
is aimed at gathering local data for a better understanding on the effects of roofing systems and
materials on MRT to provide better thermal performance for residential buildings in Malaysia.

Figure 1: Thermal radiation from roof into interior

(Source: Cowan, 1973)

2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study involved an observation survey on the types of common roofing systems and materials
used in recent residential developments in Malaysia, as well as simulations of MRT on selected
roofing systems and materials using HTB2. The aim of the observation survey is to gain a better
understanding of the types of common roofing systems and materials used in recent residential
developments in Malaysia. It was carried out by conducting site visits to 40 residential developments
in Malaysia. Analyses of documents were focused on the types of roofing materials and roofing
construction methods.
The second stage of the study involved computer simulations by using HTB2 software.
Considerations given to roof materials include roof finish materials, reflective insulation (radiant
barriers), mass insulation materials and ceiling materials, as shown in Figure 2.

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 Thermal Performance Evaluation of Roofing Systems and Materials in Malaysian Residential Development

Roof finish

Roof Space Insulation

Ceiling

Figure 2: Roofing system and materials

2.1 Observation Survey

An observation survey was carried out from December 2006 to March 2007 on the roofing systems
and materials for recent residential developments within the state of Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan
Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. This is due to the fact that major residential developments in Malaysia
are concentrated within these areas. There were 40 housing samplings involved in this observation,
including terrace houses, semi detached houses, cluster houses, and bungalows. The construction of
these 40 housing samplings ranged between the years 2002 to 2007. The breakdown of housing
types and roof finishes are listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Breakdown of housing type and roof finishes

Building type Concrete tiles Clay tiles Metal deck

Terrace house 18 1 –
Semi detached 8 1 –
Cluster house 1 – –
Bungalow 7 2 2

Total 34 (85%) 4 (10%) 2 (5%)

2.2 Simulation of Roof Thermal Performance

Based on a performance assessment and selection process, HTB2 was selected as the simulation
software for this study. HTB2 was developed as an investigative model of the thermal performance
of buildings by D.K. Alexander from the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Wales.
A double-storey terrace house in Kuala Lumpur was used as the baseline model for the simulation
process. The model was based on the actual house orientation, materials, windows and doors position
and sizes, and internal partitions. The roof model includes the roof form, roof pitch, roof size, and
construction method of the roof. The data on the common type of roofing materials and construction
configurations obtained from the observation survey were simulated for evaluation of the thermal
performance of the various common roof assemblies.

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3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The observation survey of 40 residential buildings presented a representative overview of the common
roofing construction being practised in Malaysia. These are categorised under roof finish materials,
reflective insulation materials, mass insulation materials and ceiling materials. The summary of
findings is shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Common roofing materials for 40 residential buildings in Malaysia

Roofing Materials Number of houses

Concrete tiles 34
Clay tiles 4
Metal deck 2
Single-sided woven type alum. foil 24
Double-sided woven type alum. foil 7
Single-sided paper type alum. foil 6
Without radiant barrier 3
Rockwool 8
Without mass insulation 32
Plaster board 30
Cement board 10

As MRT is the most important factor in evaluating thermal performance of roofing systems and
materials (Peng Chen, 2002) the simulations and analysis of roofing systems and materials were
based on the effect on MRT.

3.1 Roof Materials

Figure 3 illustrates the reasonably high MRT readings as a result of using the three commonly-
used roof materials. This is due to the absence of any thermal insulation. As clearly shown in the
Figure 3, by using clay tiles as roof material, the interior of the terrace house will have the lowest
MRT, with the highest reading of 31.9°C at 2pm. This is followed by the use of concrete roof tiles,
where the MRT reaches 32.4°C between 2pm to 3pm. The metal deck roof produces the highest
MRT of 33.2°C between 2pm and 3pm. However, the lowest MRT readings for the three roof finish
materials are the same at 28.3°C due to the absence of solar heat at night.

3.2 Reflective Insulation

In these simulations for the most commonly-used roof finish, namely concrete roof tiles, the thermal
performance of reflective insulation is analysed. In the case where no aluminium foil is installed, the
MRT of the interior can reach as high as 32.4°C between 2pm and 3pm, during the hottest time of
the day. With single-sided aluminium foil installed, the MRT is reduced to 28.5°C. The use of double-
sided aluminium foil will lower the MRT to a reading of 28.1°C at 3pm. The use of aluminium foil in
the roofing system will also have a direct impact on the lowest MRT reading of the day. From Figure

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 Thermal Performance Evaluation of Roofing Systems and Materials in Malaysian Residential Development

Effect of Roof Finish on MRT

23March2007
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Mean Radiant Temperature C 34.5
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Concrete tiles Clay tiles Metal deck

Figure 3: Thermal effect of roof material without insulation on MRT

Effect of Radiant Barrier (Alum. Foil) on MRT

23March2007
Mean Radiant Temperaure C

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Without alum. foil Single-sided alum. foil Double-sided alum. foil

Figure 4: Effect of aluminium foil on the thermal performance of concrete roof tiles with respect to MRT

4, the lowest MRT reading for the bare roof finish is 28.3°C, whereas with the double-sided aluminium
foil, the lowest MRT reading is 25.8°C.

3.3 Reflective Insulation and Mass Insulation

Figure 5 shows that the use of double-sided aluminium foil as reflective insulation has a more
dramatic effect in reducing the MRT of the interior as compared to 50 mm rockwool as mass
insulation. By installing double sided aluminium foil for the metal deck roof, the highest MRT reading

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Effect of Reflective Insulation and Mass Insulation on MRT

23 March 2007
Mean Radiant Temperature C 35
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Double sided alum. foil 50mm rockw ool

Figure 5: Comparative effects of reflective and mass insulation on MRT

is 28.5°C between 2pm to 3pm. In comparison, if the metal deck is installed with rockwool as mass
insulation, the MRT will be increased to 31.6°C. Meanwhile, the lowest MRT reading for reflective
insulation is 26.0°C compared to 28.7°C for mass insulation.

3.4 Ceiling Materials

Figure 6 shows clearly that among the three types of simulated concrete tiled roofing systems, the
roof model with hybrid ceiling is able to produce the lowest MRT of 31.3°C at 2 pm as compared to

Effect of Ceiling on MRT

23March2007
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Mean Radiant Temperature C

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Figure 6: Effect of ceiling materials on the thermal performance of concrete roof tiles, with respect to MRT

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 Thermal Performance Evaluation of Roofing Systems and Materials in Malaysian Residential Development

plaster board and cement board. Hybrid ceiling is a combination of aluminium foil and rockwool.
This is followed by plaster board ceiling with MRT of 32.4°C between 2 pm and 3 pm., while
cement board results in the highest MRT of 33.2°C between 2 pm and 3 pm.

3.5 Complete Roofing System

Thermal performance simulations for the commonly-used roofing systems in Malaysian residential
development were then made according to the configuration in Figure 2. In all cases single-sided
aluminium foil below roof tiles and horizontal plaster board ceiling were specified with additional
rockwool insulation for metal deck roofing. The results are shown in Figure 7, indicating that clay-
tiled roofing system results in the lowest MRT readings.

Thermal Perform ance of Com m on Dom estic Roofing Systems

in Malaysia - MRT
23March2007
Mean Radiant Temperature C

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Concrete tiled roof Clay tiled roof Metal deck roof

Figure 7: Effect of complete roofing systems on MRT

3.6 Location of Reflective Insulation

The effect of reflective insulation location has been simulated, namely by specifying double-sided
aluminium foil below roof tiles and above the horizontal plaster-board ceiling. The outcome in
Figure 8 indicates that the horizontal location results in 3 degrees C lower MRT reading.

4. CONCLUSION

The results revealed that among the common roofing systems and materials used in Malaysian
residential developments, clay tiles with double sided aluminium foil and plasterboard ceiling is able
to produce the optimum thermal performance in relation to Mean Radiant Temperature. This is
followed by concrete tile roofing system with double sided aluminium foil and plasterboard ceiling,

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Effect of Alum. Foil Location on MRT

23March2007
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Alum. foil below roof tiles Alum.foil on top of ceiling

Figure 8: Effect of reflective insulation location on MRT

and lastly metal deck roofing system with double sided aluminium foil, rockwool as insulation
materials and plasterboard ceiling. From the simulation results, it is recommended that with
additional combination of double sided aluminium foil on top of plasterboard or rockwool as hybrid
ceiling, it will significantly reduce the MRT of interior space. This will reduce the heat exchange
between the roof space and the occupants through radiation, and therefore optimising thermal
performance of roofing systems. The recommendations on the roofing materials as well as roofing
assembly and configurations for optimum thermal performance for residential buildings in Malaysia
are summarized in Table 2 below:

Table 2: Recommended roofing materials and configurations for residential buildings in Malaysia

Roofing Materials and Configurations Recommendation

Roof finish material Clay roof tiles will produce the best thermal performance
followed by concrete roof tiles and metal deck.
Reflective insulation Double-sided aluminium foil is strongly recommended as it will
significantly lower the indoor MRT and thus reducing heat to
be radiated to the occupants.
Reflective insulation location Installing reflective insulation above horizontal ceiling is
significantly better than below roof tiles
Ceiling material Hybrid ceiling is recommended to optimise thermal
performance of roofing systems, followed by plaster board
ceiling and cement board.
Reflective insulation in place It is strongly recommended to apply reflective insulation
of mass insulation instead of mass insulation materials such as rockwool for
concrete or clay roof finishes, due to better thermal
performance.

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