Energy savings approaches of buildings in hot-arid region,Saudi Arabia: Case study

Recently,the energy savings have become more pronounced as a result of the world financial crises as well the unstable oil prices. certainly all entities need to adapt energy conservation and management strategies. this is due to high monthly consumption of energy; energy bills of saudi telecom exchange buildings are a good example. to improve energy savings of such installations,it is necessary to either provide well designed new buildings,or enhance existing buildings with more energy saving strategy practices. this paper investigates the impact of heating,ventilation and air conditioning (hvac) system characteristics,designed spaces of buildings,operational strategies,the impact of envelope thermal characteristics and energy conservation measures. these measures are classified under three types; i.e. zero-investment,low-investment and high-investment energy conservation measures. the study shows that the energy conservation measures (ecms) pertaining to the hvac system characteristics and operation represent the highest potential for energy reduction. attention should be given to window thermal and solar radiation characteristics,when large window areas are used. the type of glazing system needs to be carefully considered in the early design phase of future buildings. the hvac set points to provide optimal operation of telecom devices in the exchange center. the paper presents the thermal optimization of centers of different size in the hot-arid regions,saudi arabian city of al khobar,eastern province and the effect of adding wall and roof insulation on cooling energy is evident. also the total reduction of around 3-20% is obtained by applying both wall and roof insulation.