In Libya, the building sector is rapidly growing and consequently more energy is being expended in this field. Due to the nature of our climate, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning) is the primary consumer of energy in buildings. A large portion of this energy may be saved through the use of insulation in order to increase the thermal efficiency. Energy saving techniques are just as important as the development of new energy sources. This paper investigates potential of energy consumption reduction, cost savings and pollutant emission prevention achieved by installing different insulation materials of optimum thickness in residential building wall in Libya. A degree day approach was used for these calculations. Cooling and heating degree day were first calculated for twenty locations across Libya. Then a systematic procedure for optimization of insulation material thickness, payback period and cost analysis was developed and applied for three different types of wall insulation materials. Finally, a correlation between the CDD/HDD and the optimum thickness of insulation materials is presented. The results show that, by introducing optimum insulation thickness of different insulation materials the energy consumption and emissions can be reduced by 70%-80% in comparison to a wall without insulation.

In this study, the research output from the major Libyan engineering schools was gathered and compared for the period of thirty years (from 1984 to 2013). The Elsevier database, Science Direct, was used to gather these publications and only engineering articles were included. A comparative analysis was performed on three levels; first a local comparison between the different faculties of engineering across Libya and secondly, a broader comparison between Libya and the neighboring METAL (Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya) countries and finally, the third comparison was performed between Turkey and the METAL countries. In the local comparison, the output was normalized by the number of teaching staff while in the broader regional comparison, gross domestic product and population were used as standardization factors. When analyzing the research output of the Libyan engineering schools, it was observed that most publications came from Tripoli (47.1%, n=131) followed by Benghazi (25.9%, n=72), Misurata (4.1%, n=12) and Omar Al-Mukhtar (4.0%, n=11). However, when the number of staff members was taken into consideration, Benghazi University and Omar Al-Mukhtar University had higher research productivity levels than Tripoli University and Misurata University respectively. The regional comparison showed a clear difference between Libya and its neighbors, having the lowest output among them. Finally, it was found that across the three decades under study, Turkey produced more research than all the METAL countries combined. More attention needs to be paid to research and publications in Libyan engineering schools. A number of recommendations were made to help improve the publication rate in Libyan engineering faculties.