The impact of street orientation and aspect ratio on cooling demand in buildings: a case study of the “Sakan Misr” housing project in Egypt

In Egypt, households are the largest consumers of electricity, accounting for 41% of total electricity consumption in the country, according to a report by the Egyptian Holding Company for Electricity and Renewable Energy in 2021. Furthermore, the majority of residential energy consumption is dedicated to space cooling and heating, with a percentage of 46% in the same year. With a rapidly growing population and increasing urbanization, the government has implemented policies to establish new urban communities, many of which are located in hot arid climates. Therefore, these developments must be designed to minimize energy consumption from building space cooling to mitigate its impact on global warming. This study investigates the influence of street orientation and aspect ratio on cooling demand in buildings for the newly established housing projects in Egypt. The “Sakan Misr” housing project in Cairo was selected as the case study, and a parametric simulation was carried out using Design Builder software to compare cooling energy consumption through different building orientations and street aspect ratios. The study found that as the aspect ratio of a street decreases, cooling consumption increases. Furthermore, the study found that North-south streets buildings’ have the highest average cooling demand, while buildings on east-west streets have the lowest values for cooling demand, with the lowest values observed in buildings with north and south-facing orientations. In contrast, buildings with west-facing orientation have the highest required cooling load. Incorporating these findings into building codes could potentially lead to take appropriate decisions for achieving a reduction of carbon emissions from buildings caused by space cooling by approximately 20% which could lead to more energy-efficient housing projects in Egypt, particularly crucial given the expected increase in temperatures due to global warming.