Abstract
With the improvement of the standard of living, the building's energy consumption is likely to increase. Consequently, government agencies have to improve the efficiency of their buildings' energy use. A reduction of the latter can save money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since most of this energy is of fossil origins. The use of thermal insulation is one of the most important passive energy conservation measures in buildings. Knowledge of thermal properties is essential for the selection of existing materials and the development of new insulating materials. The focus of the present paper is to determine the thermal diffusivity of 5 insulating materials, which are commercially available, being used or to be introduced to the Tunisian market. The thermal diffusivity for building material was experimentally predicted using a newly apparatus and analytical model. The results were compared with a numerical model.