The concept of unnatural roof garden to reduce energy consumption and electricity bills for houses in Bahrain

Abstract

The green roof technology has become one of the most important techniques in present days to reduce energy consumption inside buildings especially in hot climates.

Bahraini residential roofs are usually constructed with precast concrete, which, alongside with natural plant needs (soil and irrigation) makes the natural roof garden technique difficult to implement.

This research will present a new option to reduce the energy consumption inside residential buildings in Bahrain. The new concept depends on using unnatural grass (turf) added on the concrete roofs for residential buildings in Bahrain.

A simulation computer program "e-QUEST" will be used as simulation tool; to calculate the energy consumption and energy costs for each case study.

The use of unnatural grass on the concrete roofs will reduce (150,321.6B.D = 414.88 Dollars) annually for the selected model and an annual energy consumption reduction of (68 kWh). The annual reduction in energy consumption for each square meter is (7.556 kWh). The maximum reduction for bills' energy consumption is verified in July, while the minimum reduction for bills' energy consumption is verified in January.

Keywords: Reduce energy, Energy costs, Energy consumption, Unnatural roof garden, Bahraini houses.