TY - JOUR
T1 - Zero energy building (ZEB) in a cooling dominated climate of Oman
T2 - Design and energy performance analysis
AU - Al-Saadi, Saleh Nasser
AU - Shaaban, Awni K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - Zero energy buildings (ZEBs) are targeted by several developed countries around the world which consequently promotes the progress toward achieving ZEBs. The concept of ZEBs is, however, uncommon in developing economies such as Oman. In 2011, The Research Council of Oman has announced a competition to design, construct and operate buildings that embrace sustainability principles. The first five eco-friendly buildings were designed and constructed by academic institutions in different climatic conditions of Oman. This project has significantly contributed toward raising awareness of energy efficiency and renewable energy systems in buildings. This paper outlines the design of sustainable energy systems of one of these five buildings. The ZEB prototype is located at the Sultan Qaboos University campus in Muscat, which is an extremely hot climate as classified by the ASHRAE Standard 169-2013. The ZEB building was designed with full manipulation of natural energy. This paper also reports the experimental results of its one year of operation. The results showed that energy use intensity (EUI) of 103 kWh/m2 was achieved by this building. The building was less than 3% from achieving its net-zero energy source/site/emissions status. Nonetheless, it was able to achieve a positive energy cost status because of the financial credits received from the exported energy, which is subjected to high cost feed-in tariffs. When grid interaction was considered, 40% of the building load was met by site generation. For 33% of the time, this building was independent of the electrical grid, which is comparable to other net-zero energy buildings located in other climates. While several experimental studies for ZEB performance have been described in literature for heating dominated climates, very few experimental studies have been published for cooling dominated climates. Hence, this study aims to fill the gap in the knowledge of energy performance of ZEBs located in this region.
AB - Zero energy buildings (ZEBs) are targeted by several developed countries around the world which consequently promotes the progress toward achieving ZEBs. The concept of ZEBs is, however, uncommon in developing economies such as Oman. In 2011, The Research Council of Oman has announced a competition to design, construct and operate buildings that embrace sustainability principles. The first five eco-friendly buildings were designed and constructed by academic institutions in different climatic conditions of Oman. This project has significantly contributed toward raising awareness of energy efficiency and renewable energy systems in buildings. This paper outlines the design of sustainable energy systems of one of these five buildings. The ZEB prototype is located at the Sultan Qaboos University campus in Muscat, which is an extremely hot climate as classified by the ASHRAE Standard 169-2013. The ZEB building was designed with full manipulation of natural energy. This paper also reports the experimental results of its one year of operation. The results showed that energy use intensity (EUI) of 103 kWh/m2 was achieved by this building. The building was less than 3% from achieving its net-zero energy source/site/emissions status. Nonetheless, it was able to achieve a positive energy cost status because of the financial credits received from the exported energy, which is subjected to high cost feed-in tariffs. When grid interaction was considered, 40% of the building load was met by site generation. For 33% of the time, this building was independent of the electrical grid, which is comparable to other net-zero energy buildings located in other climates. While several experimental studies for ZEB performance have been described in literature for heating dominated climates, very few experimental studies have been published for cooling dominated climates. Hence, this study aims to fill the gap in the knowledge of energy performance of ZEBs located in this region.
KW - Ecohouse
KW - Energy balance
KW - Grid interaction
KW - Hot climates
KW - Load matching
KW - Oman
KW - Zero energy buildings
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066397482&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85066397482&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.rser.2019.05.049
DO - 10.1016/j.rser.2019.05.049
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85066397482
SN - 1364-0321
VL - 112
SP - 299
EP - 316
JO - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
JF - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
ER -
