Potential of energy efficiency for a traditional Emirati house by Estidama Pearl Rating system

Buildings are consuming a high percentage of material resources throughout the world. Green building movements have emerged at a rapid pace since the beginning of the 1990s. The green building rating system developed by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council as part of the sustainable development initiative was launched in UAE in 2010 on the name of Estidama, according to which a new building can score on seven different credit categories. This paper examined the Resource Energy (RE) credit category of the Pearl Rating system on an existing typical old Emirati house and concluded that the existing residential private building stock in UAE has a high potential of becoming Estidama certified. The total points achieved were 16 out of the maximum 21 points in the RE credit category. A number of retrofit strategies were applied in the form of insulation, passive cooling integration and onsite renewable energy generation using the Autodesk Revit® 2017 with Sefaira® 2017 plugin. Future recommendations for the existing building stock are addressed.