Guidelines for Sizing Shading Devices for Typical Residential Houses in Muscat, Oman

Abstract

Energy consumption of Oman’s building sector is around 55 % of country’s total energy demand and it has increased by 59 % from 2005 to 2010. Although Oman’s Carbon Dioxide emissions are the lowest amongst the Middle East countries, it has witnessed a growth rate of 10 % from 2005 to 2010, which is considered the highest in the region. Since the country has not yet adopted nor developed any green building guidelines and lacks an energy performance bench-mark, improving energy performance in Oman’s housing stock is very challenging. This paper has three main objectives. The first is to establish guideline for sizing shading devices for different window orientations in Muscat, Oman. The second is to give a set of recommendations for designing the shading devices in order to make them culturally suitable, so they can be accepted and adopted by the community. Finally, the research studies the impact of the shading device application on energy consumption of the house using eQUEST. An energy reduction of around 10 % was achieved without drastically increasing cost of construction while also taking into consideration society’s requirement for privacy and its concern to visually maintain its cultural identity.