Studying Energy Performance and Thermal Comfort Conditions in Heritage Buildings: A Case Study of Murabba Palace

Abobakr Al-Sakkaf, Eslam Mohammed Abdelkader, Sherif Mahmoud and Ashutosh Bagchi
Additional contact information
Abobakr Al-Sakkaf: Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada
Eslam Mohammed Abdelkader: Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
Sherif Mahmoud: Department of Architecture Engineering, Military Technical College, Cairo 11662, Egypt
Ashutosh Bagchi: Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-18

Abstract: Heritage buildings are significant historical and architecture added value, which requires deep and precise preliminary brainstorming when considering upgrading or retrofitting these valuable buildings. In this study, we opted to highlight some passive design architecture interventions to improve the thermal comfort and the required cooling energy for buildings. The Murabba Palace in Riyadh was selected as a case study. DesignBuilder software was used to evaluate the energy performance of ten passive architectural design alternatives throughout different seasons in an attempt to improve the energy performance and thermal comfort of heritage buildings. The ten passive design scenarios encompassed double low-E glass, double reflected glass, double low-E glass and double wall with an air gap, double low-E glass and double wall with thermal insulation, double low-E glass and double wall with lightweight thermal insulation, double low-E glass and double wall with sprayed foam insulation, double reflected glass and double wall with an air gap, double reflected glass and double wall with thermal insulation, double reflected glass and double wall with lightweight thermal insulation, and double reflected glass and double wall with sprayed foam insulation. The results show that using double low-E glass and applying a double wall with polystyrene thermal insulation can enhance the thermal comfort inside the building and reduce the energy performance and CO 2 emissions to 17% and 9%, respectively.

Keywords: heritage buildings; passive design; energy conservation; reduction in CO 2 emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12250/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12250/ (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:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12250-:d:673409

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 ().