Thermal performance and experimental assessment of building orientations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

In hot arid regions like the UAE, it is of the utmost importance to evaluate and determine the best building orientation. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to investigate thermal performance of building orientations in the UAE. In order to test the thermal performance of building orientations in Sharjah, a real lab-scale house was constructed. It was divided into two zones; one oriented toward the north (M1) and the other one was oriented toward the south (M2). An infrared (IR) camera generated thermographs of each orientation (on one day) and average mean temperatures were recorded over 5 months. The Temperature Difference Ratio (TDR), Time Lag (Tg), and Decrement Factor (DF) were tested. It was concluded that: (1) The south orientation had a 9.4% higher temperature than the north orientation; (2) M2 had 3% higher outdoor humidity; (3) M2 had a DF that was 0.01° higher than M1; (4) M1 had a TDR that was 0.162° higher than M2; (5) M2 had an average time lag (H) that was 1.838 h lower than M1. The paper also reveals more interesting findings, which were analyzed, thoroughly tested and discussed.