The Vertical Greening Envelope and its Effect on Energy Consumption Efficiency in a Residential Building, Case Study: Twin House, 6th of October City

Abstract

Egypt has suffered from Energy problems, especially in the last 10 years, as it transformed from exporter to importer of oil and gas. [1]. The residential buildings consume over 40% of electricity. Moreover, most of this consumption is for using HVAC systems to reach the thermal comfort inside spaces, as it used non-environmental material, which led to maximizing heat gain. The study aims to measure the vertical greening envelope and its variables such as LAI and air gap effect on energy consumption. The research methodology includes reviewing the literature and methods of Vertical greening systems (VGS) and their types, plantations… Etc. and its effect on the buildings' external envelope to achieve maximum energy efficiency. A practical study was carried out by simulating one direction Town House on 6th October, Egypt, every 30° starting from the north using a design-builder simulation program. The research compared the energy consumption of the building's initial case with 12cm concrete bricks and VGS installation with a 60cm airgap. The VGS reduced energy consumption by 19.6:29% in the different installation directions, and 240° SW recorded the highest saving in the case of LAI was 2.0 and to measure the effect of LAI beside the installation orientation the LAI 2.0 compared to LAI 4.0 in 240° SW and the saving has increased to 32.3%. In the case of no airgap, the saving was 29.3% which means that the LAI and air gap distances affected the performance of VGS as the installation direction did.