Potential for cooling load reduction in residential buildings using cool roofs in the harsh climate of Saudi Arabia

To raise awareness of the potential of passive technologies, this paper addresses the major problem of maintaining the comfort of the built environment in the harsh climate of Saudi Arabia by estimating the potential reduction in residential building energy consumption resulting from the use of highly reflective “cool roof” details. To conduct this estimate, the impacts of cool roof installation on the cooling and heating loads of residential buildings in 13 major selected sites in Saudi Arabia are estimated. It is found that the use of a cool roof reduces the annual energy consumption required for building cooling by between 110.3 and 181.9 kWh/m2, while the maximum increase in annual energy consumption due to winter heating of cool roof equipped buildings in hot-dry climates is only 4.4 kWh/m2. The results show that installing a cool roof in place of a typical or dirty roof yields a reduction in peak roof conduction. This investigation concludes that the use of the passive cool roof technology is an effective method for improving the thermal performance of a roof and thus reducing building energy consumption in the harsh climate of Saudi Arabia and similar extreme climates