Analysis of the effect of passive measures on the energy consumption and zero-energy prospects of residential buildings in Pakistan

Climate change can adversely impact the thermal comfort and energy efficiency of the buildings stock. The South Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change specially in the form of rising temperatures and increasing frequency of heat waves. The passive building design measures can be useful in mitigating and adapting to the climate change by increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study various passive climate change adaptation measures (PCAMs) have been used individually and in form of combinations in order to analyze their impact on the energy efficacy of residential buildings in Pakistan. It has been found that the natural ventilation and front green wall are the most efficient options for reducing the overall energy consumption. By implementation of these PCAMs, cooling demand can be decreased by 27.75% while heating demand can be reduced by 35%. Secondly, the prospect of net zero-energy building and reduced CO₂ emissions are also studied. It has been shown that building can achieve net-zero energy on an annual basis at every orientation and it can attain the status of nearly zero-energy building on a monthly basis. Moreover, emitted CO₂ can be reduced by 31% by using the renewable energy.