Application of Building Performance Simulation to Design Energy-Efficient Homes: Case Study from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The per capita energy usage in Saudi Arabia is almost three times higher than the global average. A major contributor is the residential sector which consumes almost 50% of the total national energy consumption every year. Environmental and economic pressures along with the Saudi Vision 2030 reform program advocate for an improvement in energy consumption patterns. For a sustainable residential sector, energy-efficient solutions should be adopted in the design process preferably based on building performance simulation (BPS). This study investigates the existing status and future prospects of BPS in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia. A survey has been carried out with building industry professionals to investigate the existing practices in terms of use of BPS. Energy and environmental savings achievable through application of BPS have been estimated by modelling a typical residential villa as a case study. The results indicate that presently BPS is not being adequately applied by the building industry and a number of barriers exist which need to be addressed. The case study simulation indicates that electricity consumption of a villa based on a BPS-based design process is 51.3% less than the existing typical residential villa.

Evaluating the potential energy savings of residential buildings and utilizing solar energy in the middle region of Saudi Arabia – Case study

“…The results of energy savings are represented in Figure 16 and show that the WWR has a very low effect on energy demand. These results are similar to the results found by (Ahmed et al, 2019) that also showed minimal effect when using a lower WWR. On the other hand, the results found by (Wahl, 2017) show that reducing the WWR and modifying the window allocation can save energy up to 19% for Riyadh.…”

“…The maximum reduction in energy consumption was 4.1% when an overhang projection of 100 cm were considered for Riyadh. Energy savings represented in Figure 17 are in range with that presented by (Alaidroos and Krarti, 2015) and (Ahmed et al, 2019), who showed that overhangs of 100 cm can save energy by 6% and 3%, respectively for Riyadh. However, these results were lower than the results found by (Wahl, 2017), which showed a combination of shades and fines on all fac¸ades excluding the south causes energy savings of 8.4% for Riyadh.…”

Investigating the Impact of Integration the Saudi Code of Energy Conservation with the Solar PV Systems in Residential Buildings

“…There are also many studies for electrical energy consumption in the domestic sector in the KSA in literature. Ahmed et al [20] performed a simulation study and showed that the annual energy used intensity (EUI) of a villa could be decreased from 148.8 to 72.5 kWh/m 2 , which is 51.3% of the existing typical residential villa. The buildings profoundly depend on A/C, which uses about 80% of domestic electricity only envelope insulation.…”

Techno-Economic Assessment of Energy Retrofitting Educational Buildings: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

“…In addition, KSA was the largest utilizer of fossil fuels among the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries and ranked 15th among global countries in 2008 [7,8]. The buildings and construction sector accounts for majority of the energy consumption in the country, and the abnormally high consumption in the sector is as a result of the desert climate of the country, outdated construction sector, subsidized utilities, rapid growth, lack of awareness about sustainability, and absence of codes/guidelines [9][10][11].…”