Assessment of the Potential of Adaptive Building Envelopes in Beirut

Adaptive building envelopes consist in having components with possibly variable properties that may adapt to weather conditions in order to increase the energy efficiency. In this paper, a test case consisting of an office space situated in Beirut, Lebanon is considered. A total of 11 envelope properties are considered adaptable. Four different adaptation scenarios corresponding to different adaptation periods are simulated. Comparing the results shows that a weekly adaptation would save a maximum of around 18% of energy consumption compared to an all year round optimization.