Low energy architect is a major target of building researchers and designers worldwide. Obviously, any portion of energy that can be saved in this respect can be directed to industrial processes, if any. Building energy consumption can be reduced through various systems such as air conditioning (a major building energy consumer), lighting, equipment, etc. In regions where energy is limited or scarce, air conditioning would have to be replaced by natural ventilation for the removal of the building heat load for thermal comfort. Also, energy conservation issues are being more important in hot arid regions, especially because the building are consuming more than 60% of electric energy generated and about 65% of this energy is consumed for cooling. There is a set of complex factors, which determine energy needs in building, such as solar radiation, type of A/C systems, building operation, thermal properties of the building envelop... etc. In the present decade the aim is to discuss the advantage of energy efficient building design. There is several ways to reduce the energy consumed for the human comfort process, but what is the most energy efficient or more energy saving from these ways. One of these is the insulation, which can be used for insulating the wall and the roof, which subjected to the large amount of the solar heat gain. The insulation of the roof is intended to maximize resident’s thermal comfort and minimize energy consumption of housing. The parameters, which are effect on the thermal performance of the roof, are the color, general construction, insulation and ventilation. This paper present the effect of insulation of the roof on the amount of energy consumed for different types of insulation in order to select the suitable insulation which give the minimum cost and maximum energy saving. This work was done using an energy software program (Visual DOE). This paper provided suggestions to improve the building construction for the thermal comfort. A parametric analysis was investigated for the economic analysis of various insulating building materials.

Volume Subject Area:
Energy
Keywords:
Energy, HVAC, Visual DOE, Insulation materials
Topics:
Air conditioning, Architects, Building materials, Computer software, Construction, Cooling, Economic analysis, Energy conservation, Energy consumption, Heat, HVAC equipment, Insulation, Roofs, Solar heating, Solar radiation, Stress, Structural design, Thermal properties, Ventilation
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