PASSIVE COOLING - HEATING STRATEGIES BASED ON THE BIOCLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF SAUDI ARABIA

摘要

Climate Conditions in Saudi Arabia vary greatly from region to region and the climate of the great majority of these regions lay outside the "COMFORT ZONE" therefore most regions require some sort of climate control inside the living and working spaces most days of the year through cooling and/or heating. People in SA depend heavily on mechanical air conditioning to achieve comfort since rates of electric power are cheap, because they are heavily subsidized. In order to contain the ever increasing burden of subsidies, rationalize the use of electricity and make the electricity producing companies self sustaining, and ultimately profitable, few years ago the government of SA has introduced a system in which the rate increases as the consumption goes over a certain basic prescribed amount of KW/hr. In this paper four cities (JEDDAH, ALJOUF, SHARURAH, WADI AL DAWASER) representing deferent climatic conditions (Lower-Saharan Very Hot, Lower-Saharan Temprate, Mid.Semi-Arid Temprate, Upper-Saharan Very Very Hot) were studied to determine the feasibility of using passive means to achieve comfort. The result of this study shows that, in most cases, comfort can be achieved through passive means and the need for conventional air conditioning methods can be reduced to a minimum in some cases and can be totally eliminated in some other cases. In this study the Building Bioclimatic Chart was used as the main tool to determine whether comfort could be accomplished via passive cooling and heating of buildings in the selected locations.