Simulation of the roof shapes and building orientation on the energy performance of the buildings

Abstract

The amount of greenhouse gasses has been rising since the beginning of the industrialization which is due to excessive fossil fuel consumption worldwide, however, global efforts to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions has led to intact international and regional regulation towards more green and sustainable societies. From the various sectors, construction sector is responsible for almost 39% of CO 2 , this includes the energy consumption within the construction sector as well, the overall share of the buildings is 40% for the annual energy demand worldwide. In this regards many policies were activated to reduce and optimize energy consumption in different sectors, the EU Directive 31/2010 on Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) is one of the prospective laws against inefficient energy consumption, with more strict limits on the energy needs and consumption in buildings. This study aims to investigate the effects of buildings direction and roofs on the overall energy consumption in the residential buildings by simulation in the Building Information Model environment. The results represent that different roof forms and orientations of the buildings can increase or decrease the energy consumption of the building significantly.