A systematic approach for low energy buildings in Bahrain

This thesis was mainly motivated and initiated by the need of Bahrain to develop building energy standards. The main concern, therefore, has been the establishment of a systematic approach for evaluating building energy performance using a state-of-the-art building simulation. The approach was established based on the discussion of energy standards, building simulation, office building design and performance evaluation methods. This study first investigated the most recent types of energy standards, and then examined two of them with respect to Bahrain. To evaluate the impact of energy standards on building performance a weather data file for building simulation was developed and a methodology for performing the evaluation introduced. For better understanding of how the application of energy standards influences the energy performance and how this influence can be measured the evaluation methodology was implemented to case studies in Bahrain. In order to show how researches and contributions described in this thesis can support the development of new standards the methodology was integrated into a systematic framework with the aim of optimising building energy design in Bahrain. The optimisation outcome represents a source of prescriptive and performance standards for office buildings. The building designer is giving more flexibility with respect to the prescriptive standards by providing a performance sensitivity scale. This scale was tested on a multi-storey office building in Bahrain. In conclusion, not only has a methodology for performance evaluation been introduced, but also an energy benchmark has been established, a weather data file developed and a systematic framework for setting new standards presented. However, in order to build on the achievements of the present study more work is required in two areas. One is concerned with energy performance benchmarks for different types of commercial buildings. The other is concerned with integrating the building regulation in Bahrain into the simulation programs.