Building Performance Simulation for Energy Rationalization

The building sector consumes more than one-third of the electricity produced in many countries, mainly due to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning practice. This estimation is even higher in countries geographically located in hot and arid regions. This is particularly true for Saudi Arabia, where the building sector's share in electricity consumption has reached around 80% of the electricity produced because the need for air cooling is crucial. Hence, the influence of environmental factors on building energy consumption has been a topic of focus. This work investigates the effects of applying energy rationalization for a non-residential building in Saudi Arabia. As a case study, a laboratory room at King Khalid University College of Engineering Campus was modeled using Simulink as a typical educational building. The aim was to study all involved cooling loads to assess the amount and cost of the cooling energy required for the building and to search for the influence of selected procedures to rationalize it. Three categories of rationalization measures have been identified, and one measure from each category has been selected and applied. The results show the impact on energy consumption and cost when applying these measures both exclusively and mutually. The best energy rationalization performance reached for an individual action was 17.72%, while a total reduction of 28.38% in energy consumption and cost was obtained when all three selected measures were applied collectively.