Search

In developing countries like Saudi Arabia, the experience of a rapid rate of urbanisation and ? infrastructure expansion, especially with respect to buildings is immense. The role of buildings is even more ? important as they account for around 80% of the total national electricity consumption. Based on the 2030 local ? energy consumption trends, forecasts indicate an increase in domestic energy consumption with a growth rate ? which could reach 4 to 5% annually. A significant portion of this energy consumption growth results from the ? inefficient use of energy, and absence of coordinated enforcement and stakeholder engagement.This paper ? reports on an exploratory public survey to elicit information on respondent's views on issues such as the ? awareness and applications of sustainable building. The aim of this article is to identify factors influencing the ? development of sustainable buildings and energy consumption in residential sector in Saudi Arabia. A ? structured questionnaire was designed and electronically distributed to collect information from respondents ? across Saudi Arabia, employing a random sampling technique (Snowball Technique). The findings have ? significant implications for policy makers and practitioners. The implementation of sustainable residential ? buildings code requires strong support from the public, government and the housing industry.?

Thermal comfort in building is a trendy that has been under investigation by many researchers. The mosque, for Muslim worshippers, is one of the most popular religious buildings. The demand of new mosques is continuously increasing due to the increasing number of Muslims population and growth in both economic and urban land escape. Recently, there have been a reasonable number of researches that have been investigating the thermal performance of mosque buildings. As a matter of fact, the location of the mosque and the climate play key roles on mosque building thermal performance. Additionally, mosque buildings are unique because of the intermittent operation pattern and the varying number of the users, which require rather controlled heating or cooling strategies. Sustainable energy techniques are keystone that ensures low energy consumption and provide better indoor environment for users of buildings. On the other hand due to environmental pressure to suppress global warming, more energy efficient and sustainable buildings design is one of the current issues in building industries. This research explores application of sustainable technologies for mosque buildings in hot climate zone. A number of mosque buildings in different regions, time frame and climates have been studied, and application of passive techniques on these cases have been evaluated. Performance of these techniques on roofs including building insulation, shading and green roofing have been analysed taking into account the climate and building specifications. The preliminary results obtained from this research clearly indicate that, there are design correlations and guidelines to be established for the architects and mosque buildings designers under any given climate for a sustainable mosque building design. Use of these guidelines also have potential of financial saving appropriately applied in mosque buildings in hot arid climate.

Free cooling based phase change materials (FCPCM) are promising sustainable technologies which could be used to store the cold energy available during summer nights in a sufficient latent heat storage for later utilisation during the daytime. This current work aims to evaluate the feasibility of FCPCM technology in hot arid regions where the cooling demand is dominant during most of the year round. Energy-Plus simulation engine was used to predict the cooling load of a selected case study in order to size the capacity of the storage medium. The flat-plate PCM panel storage system has been developed and assessed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling utilising ANSYS FLUENT. The influence of operating conditions on the system performance was discussed through studying the solidification and melting process characterisation of the PCM. The results indicate that the proposed system is capable of reducing the cooling load substantially and the temperature of air supplied by the system is well maintained within the summer comfort zone between 298.65 and 303.15 K under the case study climate for up to 14.5 hours during the discharging period.

Recently, more than 80% of total energy of commercial greenhouse in the northern hemisphere is used just for heating. Mostly, the energy loss happens up to 40% caused by the poor U-value of the façades. Therefore, by lowering the U-value would decrease the energy consumption significantly. This simulation is conducted using EnergyPlus software to calculate the heat loss, heating demand and daylighting of a greenhouse with different envelope materials especially novelty rooftop. The orientation of buildings and its effect to electricity generated by semi-transparent PV double glazing are also discussed. In addition, the effect of the novel rooftop to daylighting inside the greenhouse is also investigated. The simulation shows that use materials with low U-value and novel rooftop could decrease the source energy consumption by 65% which is remarkable compared to commercial greenhouse. Besides, the best orientation for the PV module of the greenhouse in Nottingham, UK is facing west-south-east. While the indoor daylighting factor declined up to 65%. Therefore, using PVs with high efficiency would diminish the electricity losses and could be used for lighting energy alternative and others.

Amman, the capital city of Jordan, usually experiences a hot dry summer with high solar radiations and a cold-wet winter. While the entire state of Jordan faces serious shortages in energy sources, significant growth in both industrial investment and constructions is noticed in the last few years particularly in Amman. This includes construction of both apartment and office buildings using a relatively new construction systems/elements. In Amman, for instance, Double-skin facades (DSF) have recently been introduced to a few buildings. However, there are no noticeable studies showing how it will work under the climate of Amman. Literature from similar climates indicates that while DSF is expected to perform well in winter, summer overheating is a major problem in hot regions due to large glazed surfaces facing excessive direct solar gains that coincide with high ambient temperatures. Thus, it is highly important to investigate the operational performance of this relatively new system in such a climate before it is widely applied due to its advantages as a promising passive technology. This study aims to investigate the thermal performance of DSF integrated into office buildings in Amman. Intended work was conducted using TAS tool and based on Amman’s weather file. Results showed that integration of DSF into multi-storeys office buildings would generally increase indoor operative temperatures for both conditions. While this would lead to significant overheating in summer times, indoor thermal comfort would almost be achieved in winter with a slight possibility of overheating during peak hours. However, the reasonable operation of the system (i.e. openings control) would help to overcome potential overheating in winter, whereas applying passive cooling technologies is highly recommended for summer operation.

BACKGROUND In 2011, Sudan became the first low-income country in Africa to introduce a rotavirus vaccine. Prevaccine baseline data on rotavirus disease burden are crucial for monitoring the impact of this new vaccine program. METHODS We conducted active, hospital-based surveillance for rotavirus disease at 8 regional public hospitals in Sudan using a standard protocol recommended by the World Health Organization for 2 full years immediately preceding vaccine introduction. Cases were children