Optimum Thermal Design of Air-Conditioned Residential Buildings

Building design is a decision making process. in Ilʹhich decisions are made on rhe selecrion of certain design /"ariahles in order to achiae cerrain objeuires (i.e. economv. thermal comforr, tʹisual comfort. aesthetics. etc.). In/ormation on rhe relationships between the /"ariables and the desired objectives is necessarvfor proper decision making. Architects have traditionally reached their design decisions based on past experience. Howel·er. total reliance upon indilʹidual experience may lead to incomplete and inaccurate results. Therefore. giren todarʹs complexities in building design, as well as advances in computer rechnology. systematic approaches can be used as an aid ro. not a replacement for, building designers in the decision making process. This paper presents the results of implementing an optimization model to the design of energy consening air-conditioned residential buildings in different climatic regions. Optimum sets of building design /"ariahles for llpica! [ʹ.S. and Saudi residences are presented. with the objective of minimi=ing annual energr consumption Ii" those buildings. Optimization results showed that significant energy .wrings can be achielʹed by using optimization in the thermal design of buildings. Valuable design information on the selection and arrangement olvarious building components can he obtained in the ear/r stages of the huilding des(qn process hy the implementation of optimization techniques. as in the model implemented in this paper.