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

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Mohammad B. Hamida ◽  
Wahhaj Ahmed ◽  
Muhammad Asif ◽  
Faris Abdullah Almaziad

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.

Author(s):  
Junaidah Jailani ◽  
◽  
Norsyalifa Mohamad ◽  
Muhammad Amirul Omar ◽  
Hauashdh Ali ◽  
...  

According to the National Energy Balance report released by the Energy Commission of Malaysia in 2016, the residential sector uses 21.6% of the total energy in Malaysia. Residents waste energy through inefficient energy consumption and a lack of awareness. Building occupants are considered the main factor that influences energy consumption in buildings, and to change energy consumption on an overall scale, it is crucial to change individual behaviour. Therefore, this study focused on analysing the energy consumption pattern and the behaviour of consumers towards energy consumption in their homes in the residential area of Batu Pahat, Johor. A self-administrated questionnaire approach was employed in this study. The findings of this study showed that the excessive use of air conditioners was a significant factor in the increasing electricity bills of homeowners as well as the inefficient use of electrical appliances. Also, this study determined the effect of awareness on consumer behaviour. This study recommends ways to help minimise energy consumption in the residential area.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 4539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar ◽  
Brar ◽  
Singh ◽  
Nikolovski ◽  
Baghaee ◽  
...  

With the ever-growing power demand, the energy efficiency in commercial and residential buildings is a matter of great concern. Also, strategic energy auditing (SEA) and demand-side management (DSM) are cost-effective means to identify the requirements of power components and their operation in the energy management system. In a commercial or residential building, the major components are light sources and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. The number of these components to be installed depends upon the technical and environmental standards. In this scenario, energy auditing (EA) allows identifying the methods, scope, and time for energy management, and it helps the costumers to manage their energy consumption wisely to reduce electricity bills. In the literature, most of the traditional strategies employed specific system techniques and algorithms, whereas, in recent years, load shifting-based DSM techniques were used under different operating scenarios. Considering these facts, the energy data in a year were collected under three different seasonal changes, i.e., severe cold, moderate, and severe heat for the variation in load demand under different environmental conditions. In this work, the energy data under three conditions were averaged, and the DSM schemes were developed for the operation of power components before energy auditing and after energy auditing. Moreover, the performance of the proposed DSM techniques was compared with the practical results in both scenarios, and, from the results, it was observed that the energy consumption reduced significantly in the proposed DSM approach.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Omrany ◽  
Veronica Soebarto ◽  
Ehsan Sharifi ◽  
Ali Soltani

Residential buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Correspondingly, many attempts have been made across the world to minimize energy consumption in this sector via regulations and building codes. The focus of these regulations has mainly been on reducing operational energy use, whereas the impacts of buildings’ embodied energy are frequently excluded. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the energy performance of buildings via a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach. The increasing amount of research has however caused the issue of a variation in results presented by LCEA studies, in which apparently similar case studies exhibited different results. This paper aims to identify the main sources of variation in LCEA studies by critically analyzing 26 studies representing 86 cases in 12 countries. The findings indicate that the current trend of LCEA application in residential buildings suffers from significant inaccuracy accruing from incomplete definitions of the system boundary, in tandem with the lack of consensus on measurements of operational and embodied energies. The findings call for a comprehensive framework through which system boundary definition for calculations of embodied and operational energies can be standardized.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 480-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharif Mohammad Bayzid ◽  
Yasser Mohamed ◽  
Maria Al-Hussein

Equipment maintenance cost is significant in construction operations budgets. This study proposes a systematic approach to predict maintenance cost of road construction equipment. First, maintenance cost data over more than 10 years was collected from a partner company’s equipment management information system. Data was cleaned and analyzed to obtain a general understanding of maintenance costs trends. Next, traditional cumulative cost models and alternative data mining models were generated to predict maintenance cost based on available equipment and operation attributes. Data mining models were evaluated and validated using portions of the collected data that have not been used in model development. Data collection, analyses, modeling, and validation steps are discussed. The paper also presents the performance of different model types. Based on the case study data, regression model trees performed better than other model types with equipment work hours being the most significant parameter for predicting maintenance cost.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-96

Saudi Arabia has a rich architectural heritage reflecting its historical memory dating back centuries. The variety of villages throughout the kingdom are a unique sphere for social, economic and architectural interactions. Despite the attention given to the architectural heritage by the General Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, as a national interest, there are heritage villages still suffering from multiple problems such as desertion, deterioration as a result of natural and human factors which effect massively the economic, social and architectural aspects. This study utilizes descriptive and analytical methodology to investigate the restoration and revitalization of the residential buildings in the Almashaya'a village and presents a plan for rehabilitation to preserve the buildings in an attractive and sustainable environment for activities, events and handicrafts that reveals its heritage and architectural value.


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