Concept of net-zero-ready residential buildings in hot-humid region: Lessons learned from the Arabian Gulf vernacular architecture

This paper investigates the energy performance and feasible energy efficient measures to achieve a Net-Zero-Ready House stage for the eastern Arabian Gulf peninsula considering the local vernacular architecture and passive cooling techniques, regional hot and humid climate conditions, and architectural context. The Net-Zero-Ready stage is when it's reasonable to start installing the solar panels, and usually, the building consumes around 50% less than the regional EUI. This study can help enhance residential building energy consumption by producing a new housing construction trend of low energy, less carbon footprint. Even though the Gulf residential buildings' electricity consumption is almost double that of their international counterparts, most of the NZEH in hot-humid climates have reached the zero-energy stage through active and passive measures. Usually, after applying the passive measures, the building achieved a low energy consumption level at this stage, with an average of 70 kWh/m2 /year for all investigated studies of a typical residential building in the hot-humid regions. Using computer software simulation (IES), a base case building model energy performance was evaluated by introducing passive cooling techniques and applying energy-efficient measures. The result showed that the total energy consumption could be reduced by around 11% by utilizing ancient building construction methods, including natural ventilation strategies, through a wind catcher, wind scooping, and a courtyard. Those techniques are established in Arabian Gulf traditional and vernacular architecture to cope sustainably with the harsh condition of the desert's hot-arid-humid climate. Furthermore, additional energy efficiency measures helped reduce energy consumption by 30%, making the home perform at a low energy consumption level and reach the Net-Zero-Ready stage. It was found that the most effective measures to reduce energy consumption are enhancing the envelope specification and increasing the mechanical air conditioning efficiency with an energy reduction of 8 % and 24% respectively.