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

Mohammad B. Hamida, Wahhaj Ahmed, Muhammad Asif and Faris Abdullah Almaziad
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Mohammad B. Hamida: Architectural Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
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
Faris Abdullah Almaziad: Department of Building Engineering, College of Architecture and Planning, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 31451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: The buildings and construction sector accounts for the majority of the energy consumption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). For a sustainable future, energy consumption in the sector should be reduced and existing buildings need to be energy retrofitted. A number of studies present energy retrofitting of residential buildings in KSA; however, there is a lack of studies presenting retrofitting of educational buildings. Thus, the aim of this study is to adopt a BIM-based approach to assess Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) in a prototypical Government-built educational building in Dammam, KSA. The methodology consists of six prime steps, (1) case study data collection, (2) energy auditing, (3) proposing ECMs, (4) BIM model development, (5) energy assessment, and (6) economic assessment. The energy audit revealed several inefficiencies in the building construction and operation and four ECMs were proposed and simulated. It was found that annual energy consumption can be reduced by 22.7% in the educational building, and the investment for the four ECMs is paid back in 2.7 years only. Therefore, implementing the proposed ECMs is a viable option to energy retrofit such educational buildings in the country, and the presented BIM-based approach can be adopted to efficiently conduct the energy retrofitting process.

Keywords: educational buildings; energy efficiency; energy auditing; Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs); sustainability; KSA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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