Converting Egyptian Commercial Building to NZEB using Low- Carbon Measures

The present work aims at analyzing the energy savings of the low-carbon retrofitting measures in an existing administration building as well as their economic feasibility. Atstarting, energy consumption analysis of an exemplary existing commercial building inCairo (Egypt) is carried out. Then, low-carbon measures in the considered building areapplied and evaluated. The low- carbon measures include both passive and active measuresto reach Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB). The exiting building energy consumption ofheating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and appliances are analyzed using building simulationpackage, which consists of Sketchup, Open Studio and Energy Plus software under Cairoclimatic conditions. The simulated results are validated with the real energy consumption ofthe existing building. The yearly average deviation between the simulated results and thereal existing case is less than 1%. The economic feasibility of all implemented low carbonmeasures are conducted using the payback period. The reported results confirm thatconverting the existing administration buildings to NZEB is applicable under the Egyptiancircumstances using low-carbon retrofitting measures implementation and renewable energy (PV panel) systems installation. Keywords – commercial building; net zero energy building; low-carbon measures; cooling demand, building energy modeling and simulation.