Case Study of Low Energy Office Building

A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy (ZNE) building, net-zero energy building (NZEB), net-zero building or zero-carbon building is a building with zero net energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site. With up to 80 per cent of UAE’s electricity consumed by buildings for essentials such as air conditioning in a hot desert climate, moving to what are called “Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs)” to save energy and cut consumption is an important step into the future. The promotion and the awareness to develop Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) in the UAE is also aligned with the Paris Agreement in 2016, Dubai Plan 2021, and Abu Dhabi Plan 2030. As a first step towards achieving nZEBs in UAE, a very simple approach to reduce the energy consumption of a typical office building located in Abu Dhabi is presented in this paper. This is achieved by comparing different alternatives of walls, roofs, and daylighting by selecting the best window to wall ratio to allow sufficient daylight and natural ventilation, type of glazing, building orientation, and HVAC systems. To simulate the building energy consumption, the office building is designed on Revit and with the help of Sefaira plug-in; the energy consumption has been analyzed by applying different strategies. The result shows that the best design configuration would lead to 55% energy saving compared with the base case.

Keywords: Zero energy building; Low energy building; Case study