Estimating the future energy efficiency and CO2 emissions of passive country housing applying domestic biogas reactor: A case study in Egypt

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of passive design strategies and using biogas in reducing energy consumption, annual energy cost and CO2 emissions of a new productive country housing model in an ongoing sustainable community development project near Cairo, Egypt. The country housing character follows the vernacular architecture of such hot arid areas through the application of courtyards, vaults and domes with two different materials for the building envelop. The traditional 25 cm red bricks were used in the first case, whilst the second sustainable one is a prefabricated sandwich panel construction of 15 cm GRC walls. The opportunity of using 2 m3 biogas reactors is promising in such housing projects that have an area for raising domestic animals along with the waste supplies from each house agriculture zone. Design Builder simulations took place in present and future showed considerable reductions of energy consumption, annual energy cost and CO2 emissions estimations in the sustainable option with the biogas passive house. Keywords: Passive architecture, Biogas, Energy efficiency, Climate change adaptation, Weather data file