Description

Climate has a major impact on energy use in buildings, especially in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Building Code, Energy Conservation Requirements (SBC-601), provides the minimum energy performance requirements for buildings and their systems. Since a critical factor in determining the overall energy consumption is the envelope dominated cooling load, numerous design tables are provided in SBC-601 to help design offices that comply with the energy performance requirements for walls, roofs and windows for the various climatic conditions encountered in Saudi Arabia. So far, due to the complexities of SBC-601 and the lack of a simple building science-based climate zone map (CZM) for Saudi Arabia, neither builders nor designers have been able to demonstrate code compliance, and neither have the authorities having jurisdiction been able to mandate code enforcement properly. As a result, 70% of Saudi Arabian homes are today, for example, not insulated, which results in the consumption of nearly 52% of electrical power generated. This study explains the details of how the above-mentioned shortcomings can be addressed through development of a Kingdom-specific CZM online tool, which characterizes the SBC 601 minimum prescriptive energy efficiency performance requirements for residential and nonresidential building envelopes. The study also highlights the significant role this tool can play in facilitating code compliance and gives examples of the potential energy savings.

Citation: 2016 Winter Conference, Orlando, FL, Conference Papers

Product Details

Published:

2016

Number of Pages:

8

Units of Measure:

Dual

File Size:

1 file , 1.3 MB

Product Code(s):

D-OR-16-C028