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

Wahhaj Ahmed, Muhammad Asif and Farajallah Alrashed
Additional contact information
Wahhaj Ahmed: Architectural Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad Asif: Architectural Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Farajallah Alrashed: Farchitect Engineering Firm, Dammam 32424, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 21, 1-16

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.

Keywords: Building Performance Simulation; energy efficiency; energy consumption; residential; building design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/6048/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/6048/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:21:p:6048-:d:282013

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().