Electrical energy reduction based on residential densification for passive heating and cooling load reduction in...

In Jordan, housing is one of the largest consumers of electricity due to total heating and cooling requirements. This research looks at how populated spaces impact energy consumption. The case study is mid-rise apartments, and it takes a cross-disciplinary approach by merging the fields of electrical engineering and architectural design. The study, through simulation and the national building code of Jordan, especially the 2018 building code and its code regarding urban density, considers the effect on energy consumption of increasing building height by adding floors in categories A, B, and C. The aim is to identify passive design. Such a goal, inspired by low energy building schemes, looks at how to reduce electricity demand without active systems. Key factors like the number of floors, building height, and shade coverage also matter. The simulations indicated that increasing the residential density to 6 floors, the mean values of the spent electricity per square meter of floor area decreased considerably. The averages were down 26% for category A, 28.6% for category B, and 28.3% for category C. Overall, these findings capture the essence of the strategic civil and architectural design needed to really understand the abstraction of energy demand and offer the basis for energy efficient construction to be adopted in Jordan, especially concerning the national electrical grid.