Assessment of Green Roof effects on the overall energy consumption of a residential building in hot and humid climate

Saudi Arabia is facing a rapid growth in energy demand much of which comes from the building sector as it accounts for over 76% of the total national electricity consumption. The residential sector alone consumes around 51% of the total electricity. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems make for the most of the energy consumption in buildings. The rapid economic growth and the need for new residential buildings to meet the needs of growing population indicate a steep rise in energy demand in the future. The situation implies enormous energy and environmental challenges for the country. Meeting the growing energy demand in a sustainable and socially responsible ways is among the best of approaches that may take into consideration any of the available renewable/sustainable strategies thereof. One of such innovative approaches in order to successfully increase the energy efficiency of buildings is to install a rooftop of vegetation known as a Green Roof. They have the ability to provide a wide range of sustainability and ecological benefits while often enhancing the aesthetic qualities and architectural creativity of buildings. This project seeks to explore the viability of green roof as passive design strategies for reducing the energy usage of residential buildings in hot and humid climatic conditions such as the one prevailing in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The project has strong simulation and experimental dimensions. It plans to develop green roof on a sample residential building in the KFUPM. The performance of the developed green roof will be compared against that of the conventional roof through a detailed energy modeling exercise using state of the art software tools. Parallel to the modeling exercise, detailed energy auditing and monitoring work will be conducted to determine the real time performance of the two roof systems. Economic analysis of the green roof will also be undertaken. The proposed work is aligned with the Saudi governments recent initiatives to improve the energy and material performance of buildings. It will help promote sustainable practices in the building sectors and will benefit teaching and research activities in the concerned area