The effect of residential building façade design on energy consumption for hot desert climate

One of the most prominent parts of the building envelop that exposed to the external environment is the facade of building due to the pressure of environmental conditions as compare to the rest of building. Previous literatures had presented many researches in this field, but the study of the effect of the residential building façade design in reducing the energy consumption of buildings had not been adequately addressed for hot desert climate. The aim of this research is to determine the design characters for the façade of residential buildings. That includes wall materials, window to wall ratio, and the shape of windows, that reduce energy consumption in summer session. To achieve this goal, a typical type of two stories residential building had been adopted and tested by software simulation program to estimate the energy performance. The results showed that most efficient materials for the façade were the thermostone block with brick claddings. As for orientation the best results was for north elevation. And for window to wall ratio the best value was 20%.