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Pakistan faces critical challenges from global warming and rising energy demand, particularly for space cooling needs. This study evaluates the technical and economic performance of low- to medium-cost passive cooling/heating methods in reducing energy consumption for an educational (university) building in a subtropical climate. EnergyPlus simulations were conducted to assess individual and combined measures. Results show that adjusting temperature setpoints by ±2°C yields the highest savings, reducing cooling energy by 27% and heating energy by 62%. Green walls (GWs) and roofs also demonstrate strong performance, cutting heating demand by up to 42% and 37%, respectively, while short-wave reflectivity (SWR) reduces cooling loads but slightly increases heating demand. Combining measures further enhance performance, with the best-performing combination (C10: setpoint adjustments) achieving ~14% annual savings and C6 (SWR + louvers) reducing cooling energy by ~27%. The building’s energy use intensity is 154.71 kWh/m2/year, which exceeds the benchmarks reported for similar climate countries. Among the measures, temperature setpoint adjustment, requiring no initial investment, proves to be the most cost-effective while GWs/roofs and double glazing, though medium cost, deliver substantial long-term savings. These findings emphasize the potential of practical, scalable passive measures to reduce energy consumption and support sustainable building design in subtropical regions.
Details
; Abdullah, Muhammad 1 ; Nasir, Muhammad Tauseef 1 ; Ali, Zaib 1 ; Zaki, Sheikh Ahmad 2 ; Cuce, Pinar Mert 3
; Cuce, Erdem 4
1 School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (SMME), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12 Campus, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
2 Department of Mechanical Precision Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
3 Department of Architecture and Built Environment, School of Architecture, Built Environment, Computing and Engineering, Birmingham City University, Birmingham B4 7XG, United Kingdom; Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Zihni Derin Campus, Rize 53100, Turkey [email protected]
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Zihni Derin Campus, Rize 53100, Turkey; University Centre for Research and Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab 140413, India; Center for Research Impact & Outcome, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab 140401, India