Cooling buildings represent a major environmental issue, especially during summers. Although thermal insulation can decrease cooling loads, the presence of thermal bridges, infiltrations, windows, and other openings pose a continuous challenge. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, for instance, most windows are made of aluminum, a thermal conductor. This paper uses two methods to evaluate the alternative solution of enveloping buildings, including windows, with a secondary layer. The first method involved small-scale models; two test rooms were built, with one (the reference room) being based on regular municipal thermal guidelines and the other (the enveloped room) including an extra, secondary surrounding layer. The second test staged a similar scenario via software simulation. Both sets of results showed a significant reduction in electricity consumption in the enveloped room, which became more notable as the weather grew hotter. At the high end of the temperature scale, the power consumption of the enveloped room was 47%–54% lower than that of the reference room. However, such a secondary building envelope would increase the width of the wall structure and present the downside of adding to construction costs. While adopting this system in Dubai may save the city an estimated 16.6% in electrical energy, based on current prices, a house would likely need between 10 and 15 years to recuperate the associated capital investment.

Department of Architecture

College of Architecture, Art and Design

Journal of Architectural Engineering

Effect of a Secondary Building Envelope on Cooling Loads in Hot Climates

World University root node

Department of Mathematics and Sciences

College of Humanities and Sciences

Fulltext

Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics

Extraction of different temperatures and kinetic freeze-out volume in high energy collisions

Department of Information Technology

College of Engineering and Information Technology

Cluster Computing

<a href="https://scholar.google.com.pk/citations?view_op=view_citation&amp;hl=en&amp;user=j5x2DasAAAAJ&amp;sortby=pubdate&amp;citation_for_view=j5x2DasAAAAJ:cK4Rrx0J3m0C">Zone of trust: blockchain assisted IoT authentication to support cross-communication between bubbles of trusted IoTs</a>

Unit of Surgical Sciences

Ajman University

Founded in 1988 as the first private institution of higher education in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf region, Ajman University (AU) is now being recognized as an emerging leader on the global academic map.

The 2020 QS World University Rankings lists AU in the top 800 universities globally and among the top 10 worldwide for international students and faculty! The &ldquo;Top 50 Under 50&rdquo; QS Rankings names AU as one of the top 150 young universities in the world. Even our distinct location in the Dubai/Sharjah/Ajman corridor is ranked by QS as the 61st best student destination on the planet. Recently, Ajman University earned Five QS Stars in three ratings categories -- Social Responsibility, Inclusiveness and Learning Environment. We also garnered Four QS Stars for both Teaching and Internationalization.