Prediction of future energy consumption reduction using GRC envelope optimization for residential buildings in Egypt

• Two residential buildings were simulated in three different climate zones in Egypt.
• 54 dynamic thermal simulations were conducted using three weather data files.
• The 10 cm GRC and foam sandwich wall has achieved the best thermal performance.

The recent IPCC reports and conferences drawn attention for the increased likelihood that unexpected climate events and changes might happen especially after reaching the 400 ppm CO2 limit. This concept is getting more scientific understanding as “most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations”. Therefore, current practice of construction industry in Egypt as a mid-latitude region needs to consider passive architectural design for residential buildings as a crucial strategy for climate change mitigation. To achieve this, building envelope optimization is investigated in this paper both in the present time climate conditions and in the future scenarios as well. Two residential case studies were simulated by Design Builder using morphing methodology with the application of different Glass fibre Reinforced Cement, GRC, walls’ compositions in comparison to traditional walls in three Egyptian climatic zones. Both buildings showed gradual energy consumption reduction using the 10 and 12 cm GRC-foam sandwich respectively showed an increase by time towards the year 2080. These reductions were considerable in the hot arid and semi hot arid zones rather than in the moderate zone.