An Analysis of Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption within Public Primary Schools in Egypt

Schools constitute the most suitable sector of building for the application of indoor thermal comfort quality as they represent a broad sector of construction. Thermal comfort plays a major role in the educational building sector, especially in hot-arid climate. It has a big impact on building interior temperature as well as on energy consumption. The present study is primarily an attempt to assess the existing indoor thermal comfort status as well as energy consumption in Egyptian public primary school building. To meet this objective, a methodological procedure has been followed; a field study was conducted in a school building that are designed based on natural ventilation and air movement through ceiling fans to assess the indoor thermal conditions based on adaptive standard comfort (ASC) model. In addition, electrical utility bills have been collected. Then, a dynamic building energy simulation model was carried out by using, DesignBuilder software for examining indoor comfort conditions as well as the energy consumption of a typical school building in Egypt. Findings revealed that lighting sources represent the largest proportion of energy consumption. In terms of indoor thermal comfort, results indicate that a higher level of thermal discomfort within the primary public school classrooms and the pupils stay more than 36.5% of their time daily in classrooms with thermal stress conditions.