Buildings Orientation and its Impact on the Energy Consumption

Abstract

Nowadays, many countries suffer from severe shortage of energy resources and the inability of saving it. It is necessary to develop an integrated strategy, to make buildings consume less energy and to integrate active and passive design techniques. Since the building orientation is one of the most important factors affecting energy consumption, this paper addresses the effect of building orientation on the amount of energy consumption within buildings. We employ the simulator "Energy-plus" to estimate energy consumption annually and during critical months in summer and winter. To obtain the best orientation for maximum energy saving, different orientations are tested. It is found that an air-conditioned building that has a southern facade consumes less energy. However, a western facade causes higher annual energy consumption by 26% over the southern facade. In the case of a two-facade building, the lowest energy consumption is obtained between the northern and southern orientations in Cairo, Egypt.