Passive cooling and energy conservation design strategies of school buildings in hot, arid region: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Due to the rapid growth of the country, prototype school buildings in Saudi Arabia were designed with little effort made towards the utilization of the natural resources to improve indoor conditions. Most of the existing school buildings in Riyadh, the capital city of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, rely on mechanical equipment to cool interior spaces. As a result, these schools have become one of the major energy consumers during the peak time of the day. A huge amount of energy could be saved with better indoor air quality if school buildings were designed with respect to the local climate of Riyadh. An energy-efficient school will also create better learning and teaching environment, decrease the impact on the environment, cost less to operate and would be easier to maintain. This paper aims to emphasize the importance of using passive cooling and energy conservation design strategies in school buildings that are located in hot, dry climates such as the Riyadh region. Shading devices, landscape, ground cover, night ventilation, thermal mass, double glazing, thermal insulation, surface reflection, orientation and air infiltration will be investigated in this paper the aim being to modify the indoor condition of a school building. Each design strategy was individually applied to the case study school and was evaluated using the thermal predictive model HTB2. Design strategies, mentioned above, were also integrated in the basecase school. Comparative evaluation of the thermal performance of the basecase and the modified case study school building design is also presented in this paper. The simulation results show that the modified design was able to significantly improve the indoor condition and reduce the cooling and heating loads of the existing school buildings.