Sawdust and soil block as wall in simple buildings to gain the optimum heat and embodied energy in humid tropical area

Red bricks are widely used in Indonesia. The process of making red brick itself causes many problems such as the combustion process and the creation of air pollutant during the production process. On the other hand, waste from timber industry in Indonesia, which is called sawdust, becomes a problem that need to be solved by the woodcraft industry. Therefore, this study aims to substitute the use of red brick as wall material as well as reducing the waste of woodcraft industry by mixing sawdust waste with clay and cement as an alternative. The purpose of this study is investigating the performance of sawdust as wall material in terms of heat transfer and embodied energy in buildings compared to red brick. This study aims to analyse the optimum composition of sawdust as wall material to gain a balanced heat and embodied energy in simple housing. The study investigates sawdust wall in building with the size of 36m2 by using simulation software called Archipak. The embodied energy calculation uses standard embodied energy per unit. The research variable is the thickness of sawdust walls. The result of this study is the thickness of sawdust wall with minimum heat transfer and embodied energy.