Energy simulation on how to go green buildings in an earth's dry climate

Abstract

Green buildings, i.e. low-energy and environmentally-friendly buildings, are highly demanded for optimizing the energy consumption and reducing the Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions. In this study, energy consumption of a residential building is analyzed in the hot and dry climate of Kashan, Iran. This is done based on the criteria of green buildings, using the Design Builder software. Several approaches are presented and discussed for the analysis, including the installing a thermal insulation layer, using external shadings and interior curtains, regulating the optimal comfort temperature, using an economizer, regulating the optimal domestic heat water (DHW) temperature, and installing photovoltaic panels. We investigate heating and cooling energies, as well as the total amount of energy saving in different conditions of the building. The results demonstrate that using the presented strategies leads to 67% and 39.3% reductions in electricity and gas consumption, respectively. Also, the carbon dioxide emissions are decreased 50.5% as a result of implementing the proposed methods.