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Construction
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Construction and Building Materials xxx (2008) xxx–xxx

MATERIALS
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Techno-economical evaluation of a rice husk ash (RHA) based

sand–cement block for reducing solar conduction heat gain to a building
C. Lertsatitthanakorn a,*, S. Atthajariyakul a, S. Soponronnarit b
a
Faculty of Engineering, Mahasarakham University, Khantarawichai, Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand
b
School of Energy, Environment and Materials, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Thungkru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand

Received 6 July 2007; received in revised form 8 November 2007; accepted 25 November 2007

Abstract

This paper reports on the performance of a rice husk ash (RHA) based sand–cement block. Its performance is compared with that of a
standard commercial clay brick. The RHA-cement block reduces solar heat gain in buildings and the comparisons include an evaluation
of room temperature, solar conduction heat transfer and economics. An appraisal of the two was conducted using two small rooms (floor
area of 5.75 m2). One of the rooms was constructed using the RHA based sand–cement block wall; the other, which served as the ref-
erence, used a commercial clay brick wall. Experiments were performed throughout a period of one summer month (March) in Thailand.
The results showed that the RHA based sand–cement block reduced solar heat transfer by 46 W. An economic analysis indicates that the
payback period of the RHA block in tandem with a 1 ton, split-type air conditioner depends on the indoor set-point temperature. The
payback period is 4.08 years when the indoor set-point temperature of 26 °C is taken.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Clay brick; Indoor set-point temperature; Economic analysis

1. Introduction admixture can reduce block thermal conductivity and

Thailand is located in a hot tropical zone; people usually
use air conditioners to reduce indoor temperature and
humidity. As a result, the electrical power consumption
related to air-conditioning is at notably high levels. Typi-
cally, the energy consumed by air conditioners represents
nearly 60% of the total energy consumption in any given
building [1]. The most important heat gain in buildings is
derived from solar radiation through the walls, roof, ceiling
and windows [2]. To overcome this issue, various national
and international research works have been devoted to
finding a low thermal conductivity construction material
that could reduce the cooling load in buildings. Khedari
et al. [3] investigated the soil-cement block using coconut
coir. The results show that the use of coconut fiber as an
*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +66 43754316.
E-mail address: freeconvect@hotmail.com (C. Lertsatitthanakorn).
weight.
In Thailand, rice farming is the largest agricultural
sector. The paddy harvest area covered 48.3% of the total
agricultural area in Thailand in 2001, and in the same year
its share of the GDP of the agricultural sector was 23.4%.
The country’s annual rice paddy production is approxi-
mately 20 million tons. The annual production of rice husk
is approximately 4.6 million tons [4]. Rice husk can be
burned and the heat of combustion is used in the rice mills
and to generate electricity. Rice husk ash (RHA) is the
waste product of the burning process. The result of burning
organic materials is called thermal decomposition. The ash
produced in this process is ground to a fine size and mixed
with lime in order to obtain a material with binding char-
acteristic [5]. RHA is a highly reactive pozzolanic material
produced by the controlled burning of rice husk. The utili-
zation of RHA as a pozzolanic material in cement and con-
crete provides several advantages, such as improved
strength and durability properties, reduced material costs

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.11.017

Please cite this article in press as: Lertsatitthanakorn C et al., Techno-economical evaluation of a rice husk ash (RHA) based ...,
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 ARTICLE IN PRESS
2 C. Lertsatitthanakorn et al. / Construction and Building Materials xxx (2008) xxx–xxx
due to cement savings, and environmental benefits related
to the disposal of waste materials. Cement with RHA has
been investigated by several researchers [5–8]. All of them,
however, studied the mechanical and chemical properties
of the RHA-cement block. There are no studies reporting
the thermal behavior of the RHA-cement block.
In the present study, a RHA based sand–cement block
was used as a wall construction material in order to reduce
solar conduction heat transfer into a test building and
decrease the energy consumption of the building’s air con-
ditioner. Finally, a simple economic analysis was con-
ducted to predict the payback period of the RHA based
sand–cement block.
2. The RHA based sand–cement block
The RHA based sand–cement block used in this study
was produced by the staff of the Faculty of Engineering,
Mahasarakham University [9]. The raw materials used
were as follows:
(i) Portland cement. An ordinary Portland cement, Type
I which complies with ASTM C 150-89.
(ii) Sand. Chee river (near Mahasarakham University)
sand that passes ASTM sieve number 8 (2.38 mm)
was used. The sand did not contain any organic sub-
stances which can be harmful to the cement
hydration.
(iii) Mixing water. The main water supply of the province
was used.
(iv) Rice husk ash. The ashes used in this study were
obtained from the burning of the rice husk in the
incinerator of a boiler at Roiet power plant (35 km
north of Mahasarakham). RHA was ground and
passed through a number 16 sieve.
The optimum RHA based sand–cement block has a
composition ratio of RHA-sand–cement of 544:320:40
kg/m3 and a water/cement ratio of 0.5. The nominal block
size is standard: 300  600  75 mm. The specimens were
tested under the following test standard:
(i) compressive strength: measured according to ASTM
C 165-4,
(ii) bulk density: performed according to ASTM C 134-
94,
(iii) thermal conductivity: testing according to JIS R
2618,
(iv) Water absorption: testing according to ASTM C 67-
02c.
A photograph of the RHA based sand–cement block
and the commercial clay brick is shown in Fig. 1. Table 1
presents an average of the properties of five specimens of
the RHA based sand–cement block and commercial clay
brick that were considered in this report. It is obvious that
the compressive strength of the RHA based sand–cement
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Constr Build Mater (2008), doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.11.017
Fig. 1. Photograph of the RHA based sand–cement (left) and the
commercial clay brick (right).
Table 1
Properties of the RHA based sand–cement block and the clay brick [9]
Properties RHA block Clay brick
Size (cm) 30  60  7.5 7  16  3.5
Compressive strength (kg/cm2) 33 35
Bulk density (kg/m3) 904 1650
Thermal conductivity (W/mK) 0.33 0.72
Water absorption (%) 26.3 25
block is similar to that of the commercial clay brick. The
water absorption of the RHA based sand–cement block
is 1.3% higher than the commercial clay brick, while the
thermal conductivity and bulk density of the RHA based
sand–cement block are 54% and 45% lower than the clay
brick, respectively.
3. Experimental method and equipment used
To investigate the performance of the RHA based sand–
cement block, two separate rooms with no windows were
built. Each room was 2.5 m high with base dimensions of
2.3 m (width)  2.5 m (length) and CPAC Monier roof tile
lying at a tilt angle of 30°. A gypsum board ceiling was
insulated using glass wool (2.54 cm thick and thermal con-
ductivity = 0.038 W/mK) for preventing heat gain from the
roof. A door was located at the eastern wall as shown in
Fig. 2. All of the walls of one room were constructed using
the RHA block. The other room, constructed of commer-
cial clay brick, served as the reference. The thicknesses of
the RHA block wall and the clay brick wall were equal
of 9 cm. All exterior and interior wall surfaces were painted
white. Type T thermocouples were used to measure room
temperature at the three centered vertical positions of each
room (R1, R2 and R3) and the center of the outside and
inside surfaces of the walls as shown in Fig. 3. Ambient
temperature was recorded with a shielded thermocouple.
Global solar radiation was measure by a Kipp and Zonen
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C. Lertsatitthanakorn et al. / Construction and Building Materials xxx (2008) xxx–xxx 3

45 1000

900
40 Tamb
800
It

Global Radiation, It (W/m2)

35 700

Temperature (°C)
600
30
500
25
400

20 300

200
15
100

10 0

0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00

0:00
Time (h)

Fig. 4. Ambient conditions during 24 h in the day of experiment (12

Fig. 2. Dimensions of the RHA based sand–cement and the commercial
March 2006).
clay brick room.

Fig. 3. Positions of temperature measurement.
B.V. model CM 11. Data were recorded by data logger and
sampled once every 15 min during 24 h. Tests were under-
taken during 30 days of summer. In this paper, results for a
representative day are presented and discussed.
4. Test results
Fig. 4 shows the hourly variation of ambient conditions.
The walls of the two rooms were exposed to solar radia-
tion, and recordings of the variations in the outside and
inside surfaces were made. The measurements were contin-
uously recorded throughout the day and night.
A comparison of the outside and inside surface temper-
atures of the four side walls of the RHA block room and
the clay brick room are shown in Fig. 5. Under the same
conditions, it was found that the outside surface tempera-
tures of all walls of both rooms were similar; however,
the inside surface temperature of all of the walls of the
commercial clay brick room was higher than the inside sur-
face temperature of all of the walls in the RHA based
sand–cement block room. This was attributable to the
RHA based sand–cement block having lower thermal con-
ductivity than the commercial clay brick.
Consequently, solar conduction heat transfer from out-
side to inside surfaces of the RHA based sand–cement
block is lower than the clay brick. The conduction heat
transfer is then given by [10]
T1  T2
Qcond ¼ kA ð1Þ
L
where Qcond is the conduction heat transfer rate, A is the
wall area, L is the thickness of the wall, k is the thermal
conductivity, T1 and T2 are the temperature of outside
and inside walls, respectively.
Applying Eq. (1) to the temperature differences during
the day, the conduction heat transfer rate of both walls
(four side walls per each room) was calculated. The calcu-
lations show the clay brick giving a maximum higher con-
ductive heat transfer than that of the RHA based sand–
cement block by about 46 W as shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 7. shows the average indoor temperature of both
rooms. Test results showed that indoor temperature differ-
ent of the RHA based sand–cement block was 1–2 °C lower
than that of the clay brick.
5. Economic evaluation
To assess the electrical energy saving of air-conditioning
in buildings using the RHA based sand–cement block, a
study on the impact of an indoor set-point on electricity
saving [11] was adopted. The study used a small test room
equipped with a 1 ton capacity split-type air conditioner.
The test room conditions were similar to our clay brick test
room. Room temperature and energy consumed by the air
conditioner were recorded during an 8 h day. The ambient

Please cite this article in press as: Lertsatitthanakorn C et al., Techno-economical evaluation of a rice husk ash (RHA) based ...,
Constr Build Mater (2008), doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.11.017
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4 C. Lertsatitthanakorn et al. / Construction and Building Materials xxx (2008) xxx–xxx

46
a 42
Brick (outside)
b Brick (outside)
44
40 RHA (outside) RHA (outside)
42
Brick (inside) Brick (inside)
38 40
RHA (inside)

Temperature (°C)
RHA (inside)
Temperature (°C)

36 Tamb 38
Tamb
34 36

32 34
32
30
30
28
28
26 26
24 24
0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

0:00
10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00

0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

0:00
10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00
Time (h) Time (h)

c 42
Brick (outside) d 42
Brick (outside)
40 RHA (outside) 40
RHA (outside)
38 Brick (inside) 38 Brick (inside)
RHA (inside)
Temperature (°C)

Temperature (°C)
36 36 RHA (inside)
Tamb
Tamb
34 34
32 32
30 30
28 28
26 26
24
24
0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

0:00
10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00

0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

0:00
10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00
Time (h) Time (h)

Fig. 5. Variations of the outside and inside surface temperatures of the RHA based sand–cement block and the clay brick in each side: (a) North wall, (b)
South wall, (c) East wall and (d) West wall.

300 RHA 41
250 40
Brick 39 RHA
200 38 Brick
Heat conduction (W)

150 37 Tamb
36
Temperature (°C)

100
35
50 34
0 33
-50 32
31
-100 30
-150 29
-200 28
27
0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

0:00
10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00

26
Time (h) 25
0:00

2:00

4:00

6:00

8:00

0:00
10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

18:00

20:00

22:00

Fig. 6. Comparison of conduction heat transfer between the RHA based

sand–cement block and the clay brick walls. Time (h)

Fig. 7. Comparison between average room temperature and ambient for

both rooms.
temperature varied between 26.6 °C and 33.5 °C; whereas,
the set-point temperature varied between 22 °C and
28 °C. The maximum daily energy consumption of the air In order to estimate energy saving, a room with an area
conditioner was 9.04 kWh at the set-point temperature of of 16 m2, 3 m high with one door and no window (overall
22 °C, while the minimum was 5.71 kWh at the set-point wall area of each room = 46.74 m2), which used 1-ton
temperature of 28 °C. Therefore, the mean energy con- capacity air conditioner, was assumed as an example for
sumption reduction corresponding to a 1 °C increase of an economic calculation. Cost analysis of the RHA based
the set-point (from 22 to28 °C) is about 6.14%. sand–cement block was evaluated and compared with the

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cost of the commercial clay brick as shown in Table 2. A
payback period was employed to determine the period of
time required for electricity savings that could be attributed
to the use of the RHA block. The costs for the RHA based
sand–cement block wall and the clay brick wall, including
materials and labor, were 21033 Baht (450 Baht/m2) and
19864.50 Baht (425 Baht/m2), respectively. Therefore, the
cost of RHA based sand–cement block wall was higher
than the clay brick by 1168.50 Baht. The payback period
is defined as the investment of time required for a saving
of an investment to equal the extra cost of the RHA based
sand–cement wall compared with the clay brick wall. To
find the payback period at a stated return, determine the
years (n) using the expression [12]
 
ð1 þ iÞn  1
P ¼B
ið1 þ iÞn
where B is the saving, i is the interest rate and P is the extra
investment cost of the extra cost of the RHA based sand–
cement wall compared with the clay brick wall.
In general, three different seasons in Thailand can be
recognized as follows: the summer season is about four
months long: from February to May. The rainy season
occurs from June to October, and the winter season occurs
from November to January. Therefore, it is assumed that
the air conditioner is operated during summer and rainy
seasons, the operating time was 8 h a day and 270 days a
year. The indoor temperature of the room constructed of
RHA based sand–cement block is lower than the clay brick
constructed room by less than 1 °C to a maximum of 2 °C.
Since this small temperature difference is not constant. We
assumed the average indoor temperature difference of 1 °C.
The electricity saving is 6.14% [11] using the RHA based
sand–cement block. During 2006, the interest rate of the
Thai bank was approximately 7% and the average electrical
cost was 3 Baht/kWh. Table 3 shows an economic evalua-
tion of the RHA based sand–cement block wall at various
set-point temperatures. It is noted that for the lower set-
point temperatures there is a faster payback periods when
using the RHA based sand–cement block in place of the
clay brick. The table also shows that the lower set-point
the higher the electric energy consumption. In addition,
Yamtraipat et al. [13], considering Thailand’s climatic con-
ditions, suggested that for energy savings and reduction of
air pollutants the indoor set-point standard for air condi-
tioned spaces should be 26 °C. It could be found that the
payback period based on the 26 °C set-point temperature
is 4.08 years. Therefore, the RHA based sand–cement
block should be promoted as an alternative construction
material to reduce heat gain through the walls of buildings.
ð2Þ
6. Conclusions
Experimental investigations of the performance of the
RHA based sand–cement block revealed both technical
and economical advantages. The RHA based sand–cement
block can significantly reduce conduction heat gain in
building as a result of the decrease of room temperature.
Consequently, air conditioner operation time is reduced
resulting in electrical energy savings. When electrical
energy demand is reduced, greenhouse gas (GHGs) emis-
sions (mainly CO2) are also reduced. The average rate of
CO2 generated from the use of fossil fuel by power plants
in Thailand was about 720 tons/GWh [13]. A simple eco-
nomic analysis indicates that the payback period of the
RHA based sand–cement block base at the indoor set-
point temperature of 26 °C is 4.08 years. This is an effective
way to save energy and preserve the environment. Finally,
due to the short payback period, market development
seems to be very promising for low-energy buildings.

Table 2 Acknowledgements
Cost analysis of the RHA based sand–cement block and the clay brick
Items RHA block Clay brick This research is funded by Mahasarakham University.
Price per unit (Baht) 25 0.6 Experimental help for Mr. N. Jankondee and Mr. A.
Amount units per m2 5.56 145 Samornboon is highly appreciated.
Labor and materials (Baht/ m2) 450 425
1 US$  35 Baht. References

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