Can envelope codes reduce electricity and CO2 emissions in different types of buildings in the hot climate of Bahrain?

H. Radhi

Energy, 2009, vol. 34, issue 2, 205-215

Abstract: The depletion of non-renewable resources and the environmental impact of energy consumption, particularly energy use in buildings, have awakened considerable interest in energy efficiency. Building energy codes have recently become effective techniques to achieve efficiency targets. The Electricity and Water Authority in Bahrain has set a target of 40% reduction of building electricity consumption and CO2 emissions to be achieved by using envelope thermal insulation codes. This paper investigates the ability of the current codes to achieve such a benchmark and evaluates their impact on building energy consumption. The results of a simulation study are employed to investigate the impact of the Bahraini codes on the energy and environmental performance of buildings. The study focuses on air-conditioned commercial buildings and concludes that envelope codes, at best, are likely to reduce the energy use of the commercial sector by 25% if the building envelope is well-insulated and efficient glazing is used. Bahraini net CO2 emissions could drop to around 7.1%. The simulation results show that the current energy codes alone are not sufficient to achieve a 40% reduction benchmark, and therefore, more effort should be spent on moving towards a more comprehensive approach.

Keywords: Building codes; Electricity and CO2 emissions benchmarks; Bahrain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544208003216
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:energy:v:34:y:2009:i:2:p:205-215

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2008.12.006

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().