Energy Optimization of an Existing Residential Villa in UAE Towards Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) Concept
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Date
2017-11
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Publisher
The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Buildings energy contributes in one third of the world’s consumed energy. The use of
fossil fuels to provide buildings energy contributes in the Global Warming
phenomenon. To reduce the buildings impact on world’s energy, concepts like net zero
energy buildings were introduced. This study was conducted to test the possibility of
achieving such concept in the UAE.
A two-story existing residential building was selected to apply energy saving measures
and introduce renewable energy solutions to it with the aim of achieving a NZEB villa.
Simulating the implementation of passive energy saving measures, efficient lighting
and efficient HVAC systems reduced the energy massively, the remaining required
electricity was provided by using PV panels. The study concluded that using external
U-value of 0.29 W/m2K, Roof U-value of 0.14 W/m2K and Windows U-value of 1.61
W/m2K together with Dubai Lamp bulbs reduced the energy by 59.04% in the case of
using VRV HVAC system. The same measures used with connecting the villa to a
district cooling plant and the energy reduction was simulated as 84.06% of the total
energy without considering chillers energy at source, 57.72% of the total energy when
considering the chillers energy.
The introduction of 49 PV panels with nominal efficiency of 20.6% was able to cover
the remaining energy required by the villa for the VRV HVAC case. The district
cooling connected case required using 19 PV panels when the chillers energy was not
considered, and 51 panels considering the chillers energy.
The net zero energy building concept was achieved for both options and was able to
upgrade the existing villa in UAE to become a NZEB.
Description
DISSERTATION WITH DISTINCTION
Keywords
energy optimization, residential villa, Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB), United Arab Emirates (UAE)