Optimizing Building Orientation for Reduced Cooling Load in Northeast Nigeria’s Residential Architecture

Between 1996 and 2005, the domestic sector was responsible for over half (55% -61%) of energy consumption in Nigeria. In addition, electrical energy used for cooling makes a significant contribution to national consumption. In the larger context of climate change and its accompanying adverse effects, it is important for architecture to reduce its global carbon footprint. Developing nations lack sufficient building performance standards, and as a consequence, sustainable building methods are neither pursued nor enforced. Thus, in the absence of high-tech green building practices, this paper seeks to evaluate how simpler passive means of design can be used to reduce cooling energy consumption in Northeast Nigeria’s hot dry climate. DesignBuilder is used to produce different building orientation iterations to evaluate their impact on cooling loads and an ideal building orientation is determined for the region. An optimal orientation of 270° is found to be optimal, as it reduces maximum cooling loads from 11150.95 kwh/yr to 9981.1 kwh/yr, a reduction of energy use of 10.5%.

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