The building and spaces shape have a great impact on indoor temperature. Well-Designed sun control and shading devices can dramatically affect indoor temperature. The thermal performance of internal spaces in hot arid desert is highly influenced by various passive design techniques, eg space dimensions, facade colors, fenestration ratio, glazing type; and vertical and horizontal shading devices. Simulation tools play an important role in taking decision during early design phase that could help in improving the thermal performance of buildings. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of different shading devices on the thermal performance of residential buildings in Egypt. To achieve this aim of the research first, the climatic analysis of New Assiut City is introduced followed by identification for the prevailing residential prototypes within the city and the selected residential type. Second, the role of the used Performance simulation tool in enhancing the designs is highlighted. Finally, a simulation has been run for the selected residential site in NA City for the four principal orientations. The results of the study showed that the use of vertical fins have a indoor overhang reduced the temperature by 1.5 C for the temperature for the southern orientation.

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The building and spaces shape have a great impact on indoor temperature. Well-designed sun control and shading devices can dramatically affect indoor temperature. The thermal performance of interior spaces in hot arid desert is highly influenced by various passive design techniques, e.g. space dimensions, facade colors, fenestration ratio, glazing type; and vertical and horizontal shading devices. Simulation tools play an important role in taking decision during early design phase that could help in improving the thermal performance of buildings. The aim of this paper is to present the effect of vertical louvers length on the thermal performance of residential buildings in Egypt. To achieve this aim of the research, first, the climatic analysis of New Assiut City is introduced followed by identification for the prevailing residential patterns within the city and the selected residential model. Second, the role of the used simulation tool in enhancing the designs is highlighted. Finally, a simulation has been run for the selected residential model in New Assiut City over the four cardinal orientations. The results of the study showed that the vertical louvers with a protrusion of 38 cm or more result in a decrease of 2 °C in indoor temperature in all four orientation. However, for the northern façade it is noticed that any protrusion more than 38 cm had only a slight effect on the indoor temperature.

Buildings are responsible for at least 40% of energy use in most countries. In Egypt, energy use in buildings has grown in the last 20 years mainly due to the increases of population, number of households, as well as increase in service demand, such as more air conditio ners, more computers, and larger houses. Therefore, various improved technology, such as energy efficien t building shells, appliances, and building designs, are strongly expected to control energy consumption in residence and commercial sectors. Meanwhile, Low Carbon Building technol ogies can be classified into th ree key areas: building materials, renewable energy for buildings and building design. These technologies are relevant for all residential, commercial and industrial buildings. They are relevant for new as well as retrofitted existing buildings. Under these circumstances, the main goal of this paper is to develop a practical platform for applying the key of building material to improve the building energy efficiency in Egypt. Eventually, the research discusses the following objectives:  The past experience of vernacular architecture.  Whether there are signi fi cant differences in initial embodied energy of different building material in two residential buildings. The comparison between the vernacular and the modern examples in thei r building materials, can achieve a satisfactory result on reducing (59,77%) of the total CO2 emissions. Vernacular buildings require similar amounts of energy and result in similar levels of CO2 emissions, both being much more than the equivalent values for modern building.

Buildings are responsible for at least 40% of energy use in most countries. In Egypt, energy use in buildings has grown in the last 20 years mainly due to the increases of population, number of households, as well as increase in service demand, such as more air conditio ners, more computers, and larger houses. Therefore, various improved technology, such as energy efficien t building shells, appliances, and building designs, are strongly expected to control energy consumption in residence and commercial sectors. Meanwhile, Low Carbon Building technol ogies can be classified into th ree key areas: building materials, renewable energy for buildings and building design. These technologies are relevant for all residential, commercial and industrial buildings. They are relevant for new as well as retrofitted existing buildings. Under these circumstances, the main goal of this paper is to develop a practical platform for applying the key of building material to improve the building energy efficiency in Egypt. Eventually, the research discusses the following objectives:  The past experience of vernacular architecture.  Whether there are signi fi cant differences in initial embodied energy of different building material in two residential buildings. The comparison between the vernacular and the modern examples in thei r building materials, can achieve a satisfactory result on reducing (59,77%) of the total CO2 emissions. Vernacular buildings require similar amounts of energy and result in similar levels of CO2 emissions, both being much more than the equivalent values for modern building.

The building shape and spaces greatly influence ambient temperatures in those spaces. The thermal performance of interior spaces is highly influenced by a number of factors. On top of these factors are as follows: space ratios (height, width, length), walls and facade finishing colors, window openings (height, width, length) and the different types of windows glass, and the vertical and horizontal sun breakers. To achieve this aim, the research is done by the analytical and applied methods, using the simulation software Thermal Analysis Software, from the climatic analysis of New Assiut City as well as identifying the prevailing residential patterns, and detailed study of the selected residential building, identifying the software used, and analyzing the simulation results for ambient room temperatures of the hot periods for shading device protrusion of the selected model. The research ends with a number of results and recommendations. Such results may be applied in hot desert areas.

Commonly, the housing built in Egypt has not considered in its design process the environmental and energy aspects. The materials used to build are mostly the cheapest, and not necessarily the most appropriate to the environment and the local climate. The literature survey by the authors indicated that no studies are available on the building materials using life cycle assessment (LCA) in Egypt. Therefore, this study comes on line to partially cover this gap. The main objective of this paper is to perform an LCA of four common building materials from the Egyptian residential sector considering the first four stages of the LCA. The brick types are often built with four systems based on the following materials; Straw/Raw, Sand, clay and cement brick. Therefore, the focus in this paper is to assess the potential environmental impacts of these four types on midpoint and endpoint methods by using SimaPro software under IMAPCT 2002+ method. The assumed functional unit is one Kilogram of each brick type. The collected available inventory data of Egyptian bricks of the four types are utilized (partially) in this paper. As the results of midpoint method, the clay brick has the largest adverse environmental impact. In contrast, the straw/raw brick results in a difference of 170 Eco-point by 68% increasing, and especially the non-renewable energy impact category. Considering the endpoint method, again, clay brick has the largest human health damage and resources depletion. On the other hand, the straw/raw brick results in a difference of 75 Eco-point by 75% increasing. Therefore the authors conclude that using straw/raw brick is the more friendly to the environment while the worst brick type which hurt the environment is the clay brick (red brick) and then the cement brick.

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) program developments were intended for the construction of life cycle inventory (LCI) database for refrigerators, computers, and general consumer products. But buildings are different from general consumer products for their long life span, and possess different characteristics from consumer goods. Examples of the various programs developed or commercialized for the performance of LCA are Be Cost, BOUSTED, ECOLOGIC, IDEA, PEMS, TEMIS, SIMAPRO, ECOPACK2000, TEAM, OfE, LIFEWAY, LCAiT, GaBi, KCL-ECO, and LCAiT each of them special country-specific, the paper introduce a brief on each program. From aforementioned, Egypt do not have tool to estimate carbon emissions from building LCA, thus the paper sheds light on Be Cost tool to take advantage from it, furthermore to be a guide in creating ECE-LCA Tool. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to develop a tool to estimate the life cycle carbon emissions (Global Warming Potential (GWP)) of the residential building materials in Egypt.

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