The Impact of Glazing Types and Window-to-Wall Ratios on Energy Consumption in Semi-arid, Mediterranean and Arid Climates

A reduction in energy consumption and energy efficiency improvement in buildings have become one of the main objectives in national and international energy policies. In an optimization process, and in order to find the most influential parameters to achieve net zero energy, several ameliorations need to be made to residential buildings. In this paper, two measures are discussed; the effects of locally available glazing types and window-to-wall ratios, tested under three different Algerian climates; semi-arid, Mediterranean and arid-climate. For the purpose of calculating energy use intensity savings, optimal values and payback periods for each of the mentioned measures the building information modelling software Autodesk Revit® and the energy simulation plugin Sefaira have been used. According to the findings, double glazing with Argon has the greatest potential for lowering the energy use intensity, whereas the window-to-wall ratios has a significant effect on the energy consumption of buildings in the studied climates, and the optimal ratio for a given orientation varies according to the type of glazing used. Moreover, very high payback periods were found compared to other countries, and only a few studied variables could be achieved with profitability. This paper is helpful for professionals who are responsible for decision-making during the design process of energy-efficient residential buildings.