Testing Low Energy Residential House

Abstract

Over the last decades, energy saving was a great challenge for engineers, especially since it enables them to achieve the principles of sustainability by reducing the use of non-renewable energy sources in attaining heating and cooling needs in buildings. The term low energy houses refer to buildings that achieve energy efficiency by integrating many strategies and thus reducing their dependence on fossil fuels. Although the building sector in Palestine lacks mechanisms for implementing sustainability, there is still hope to achieve energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by following specific strategies in buildings. This study can be considered a reference for architects to design low energy buildings because of electricity supply shortage. Therefore, the study aims to identify low energy strategies that can be applied to houses in several areas with different climates in Palestine. To achieve research objectives and aims; the study relied on the descriptive-analytical approach. The descriptive part focuses on case studies that already applied low energy systems and studies their strategies. The analytical part relied on the simulation tool used for thermal analysis (DesignBuilder V6) to apply the possible scenarios to the selected building. The strategies included building orientation, shading devices, insulation, different glazing type, and landscape (tree Planting), then integrating these strategies with the solar cell system to reduce energy consumption and obtain a low energy house. The information was analyzed by DesignBuilder and summarized by the case studies, the following results were reached: Palestine can achieve the goal of low energy houses due to its location in the Mediterranean region, solar cell system is very recommended for power production in Palestine owing to the high number of sun hours. On the other hand, the building`s orientation, glazing type, insulation material, and tree planting are passive strategies that have a notable effect on heating and cooling loads of 60 %. Furthermore, integrating passive design strategies with a PV system is the best way to achieve energy savings of 60% to 84% in energy consumption for heating and cooling loads. As mentioned, it was emphasized that the decisions taken in the design phase concerning energy efficiency are of great importance. The study had some recommendations for specific strategies that can assist decision-makers, architects, and building owners in different climate zones in Palestine to obtain low energy buildings. These recommendations were divided into two phases; the first phase includes passive strategies to reduce energy consumption such as orienting the long side of the building on the eastwest axis or near it, determining the recommended type of shading devices and glazing type for each city, using expanded Polystyrene into walls and roofs, and planting small Araucaria trees around the building in Jerusalem and high trees in Jericho and Gaza. The second phase includes combining these strategies with a PV system at 27° to produce energy for the building.