Thermal Performance Optimization for Residential Buildings in Basra City

Abstract

The present study investigates many parameters in the design of a residential building consisted of 6 floors with a construction area 240m2 located in Basra city. This study aims to reduce electric energy consumption utilized for cooling and heating of the building. The parameters which studied included: the effect of building façade, the exterior color of the external walls, the glazing distribution and the shape of the building. eQuest energy simulation program is used to simulate the annual building energy consumption, the program uses the hourly annual collected weather data. The results show that orientation the building façade toward the north direction is the best in the design of the building. The saving in annual electric energy consumption is about 11%. Moreover, the external color of the building has a strong effect on building cooling and heating energy consumption. By utilizing white exterior wall color, the annual electric energy consumption reduced by about 12%. The results also showed that by utilizing proper glazing distribution the electric energy consumption could be reduced by 3%. When all enhancements were combined an optimum building case were found. For the optimum case, the annual electric energy consumption was reduced by 35% compared to the base building case.