Evaluation of occupancy-based temperature controls on energy performance of KSA residential buildings

The paper describes the potential energy efficiency and demand response benefits of occupancy-based temperature controls applicable to residential buildings for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Specifically, various spatial and temporal temperature controls are evaluated to account for spatial and temporal occupancy patterns associated to typical living styles of Saudi households. The analysis results show that the benefits of occupancy-based temperature settings can be significant when at least two thermal zones controlled by different thermostats exist within the same housing unit. Specifically, occupancybased thermostat settings can save up to 38.7% of total annual electricity consumption for a dwelling located in Riyadh. Moreover, when the indoor temperature settings are adjusted spatially, a reduction of up to 34.7% in peak demand can result for most KSA regions. Using a bottom-up analysis approach, it is found that when scaling up to the entire KSA housing stock, the adoption of smart thermostats has the potential to reduce annual electricity use by 48 TWh/year or over 30% of the national residential sector energy consumption. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.