The influence of the improved Saudi system of houses’ setbacks on indoor comfort conditions

Conference Paper

2019

Published in: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340267052_The_influence_of_the_improve…

The high levels of energy consumed for cooling purposes in the Gulf region highlight the importance of satisfying thermal comfort demands passively or at least reducing the gap towards that. Recently, the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs improved the houses’ setbacks regulations. These improvements increase the built-up area to 70% of the property’s area and allow reducing the previously required setbacks by up to 100% of no more than two sides. This paper, up to the authors’ knowledge, is the first attempt to investigate the influence of the improved Saudi system of houses’ setbacks on the cooling loads and internal thermal comfort conditions. Implementing Design-Builder software, 50% and 0% of setbacks cases were applied to a villa in Riyadh. These cases were investigated in Muscat considering the climatic, social, and cultural similarities of the Gulf region. The corresponding reductions in the cooling loads during summer were around 6.3% and 21.6% in Riyadh and almost 12.3% and 15.1% in Muscat. The predicted mean votes of the base cases and the investigated cases fell in the (slightly warm) category. Exploring the influence of other cases allowed by the system is recommended in Riyadh and other cities in the Gulf region.

• Conference Location: Heriot Watt University
• Conference Name: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMFORT AT THE EXTREMES: ENERGY, ECONOMY AND CLIMATE
• Sponsoring Organization: Heriot Watt University
• School: Heriot Watt University