The Effect of Thermal Insulation on Cooling Load in Residential Buildings in Makkah, Saudi Arabia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5334/fce.87Keywords:
thermal performance, residential buildings, Saudi Arabia, insulation, cooling load, indoor air temperatureAbstract
Buildings consume huge amounts of electrical energy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, particularly during the summer months, due to the enormous air conditioning demands created by very hot outdoor temperatures. Residential buildings consume more than half of the electricity used in Saudi Arabia, with the air conditioning load making up 70% of this use. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the thermal performance of two mid-rise residential buildings in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. These buildings are five floors in height and have the same orientation, but the first building is thermally insulated, while the second building is not. To investigate the indoor thermal performance of the two buildings, physical measurements were taken during May 2019. The data gathered included indoor air temperature values as recorded every fifteen minutes for a period of sixty-eight hours in two equivalent rooms in each building. Analysis of site monitoring data was conducted, and the results obtained offer a better idea of the effectiveness of the existing building fabric characteristics, in particular external walls and rooves, in relation to indoor thermal performance. These data were calibrated with simulated results taken from thermal analysis software (TAS) to validate them and to thus quantify the cooling load in the case study buildings. The outcomes illustrate the similarity between the measured and simulated results and as well as indicating that thermal insulation can decrease cooling loads by to up to 50%.Published
2020-05-06
Issue
Section
Technical Articles
License
Copyright (c) 2020 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms (if a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s)):- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author's responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.
Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate licence agreement document from the editorial team (e.g. authors who are Crown employees).