Energy Retrofit for a residential building using a calibrated model in a mediterranean climate

Abstract EN

Developing countries face several challenges concerning energy provision.

This is more urge in conflict zones like Palestine due to the political instability.

The energy shortage is coupled by the unsustainable consumption of energy attributable to the poor quality of housing in terms of thermal performance.

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the energy savings through retrofitting of the building envelop using a calibrated model of an apartment in the city of Hebron, West Bank, Palestine.

A case study apartment was chosen as a prototype of apartments in Hebron.

Physical survey was performed.

Then, data concerning user’s behaviour during summer and winter; systems usage and patterns of occupying the rooms was collecte d via semi structured interviews with the occupants.

The goal was to understand the users behaviour and to integrate it when building the model to reflect the actual usage of the building.

In situ measurements (two monitoring phases) of the internal and external temperature using data loggers were taken.

The calibration of the model depended on ASHRAE standards and graphical calibration for thermal simulation models validation.

Optimization of the building envelope components was made through Dynamic Energy Simulation (DES) using IESVE software.

The results of the paper show that the amount of energy that can be saved through retrofitting of the building envelop of the existing building stock can reach up to 79.0% of the heating and 55.0% of the cooling energy.