Field monitoring of indoor air temperature of 3D-printed house in the hot climate of Saudi Arabia: A case study of the 3D Studio 2030 in Riyadh

The residential sector in Saudi Arabia accounts for about 50% of the total energy consumption in the country, 70% of which is attributed to cooling requirements to satisfy indoor thermal comfort. To achieve the country’s reform plan objectives, known as Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia aims to increase house ownership rates from 47% to 70% within a short time frame (between 2018 and 2030). Statistics suggest that the country must build millions of new residential units at a high rate to satisfy the rapidly growing housing demand. Thus, the country is being pushed to consider advanced construction technologies, robotic technologies, and large-scale 3D-printing techniques to accelerate housing ownership rates and achieve that 70% target. The growing housing demand is expected to increase the already high energy consumption, mainly produced from fossil fuels, in the next few years. The work presented in this paper is a small part of a continuous study to assess the thermal performance of existing residential buildings constructed using 3D-printing technology in Saudi Arabia. The data discussed here were gathered from field monitoring of the indoor and outdoor temperature of a house constructed using 3D-printing technology in Riyadh City during the overheated season. The methodology included recording environmental variables inside different rooms, with different orientations, and measurements of external environmental variables to compare the thermal performance of individual rooms and the whole house in relation to the outdoor environment. Further, indoor thermal comfort was assessed using the adaptive method to evaluate the overall thermal performance of the house. The monitored data will later be used to validate a standard energy simulation software, which will, in turn, be utilized to carry out further investigations to assess and improve the overall thermal performance of 3D-printed houses.