Research on the energy signature of a residential building in an arid climate of Errachidia city (South Eastern Morocco)

Energy efficiency in the building sector has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years; because it is seen as a potential solution to minimize the high energy consumption caused by the acceleration of the urbanization process. Several methodologies have been developed to assess the energy performance of buildings, including the energy signature, which is an empirical tool used to represent the real energy performance of buildings. Synthetic data of energy consumption of buildings are generated by ECOTECT simulation program, which is a class of energy models that uses characteristic data (dimensional, physical and location) of the building to predict energy consumption. The primary goal of this research is to examine how solar rays and occupants affect a residential building's energy signature in Errachidia, a city in the southeast of Morocco characterized by its arid climate. The results show that when solar radiation was taken into account, the outcomes of the building's intrinsic characteristics (a and b) enhanced the signature. The distinct response in energy use serves as justification. In fact, the solar radiation provides a significant improvement with an important R² accuracy of about 0.999. Moreover, the introduction of the occupancy factor has a significant impact on energy savings and temperature fluctuations in energy consumption. The importance of parameter b related to the fixed loads of the building is more influenced by the occupancy factor. This opens up a new possibility for energy-saving studies in the case of an arid climate.