Designing comfortable, low carbon, homes in Dammam, Saudi Arabia: The roles of buildings and behaviours

The present paper explores the thermal performance and comfort levels of seventeen air-conditioned homes monitored during the summer of 2013 in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The comfort of occupants was assessed using the adaptive thermal comfort method. Neutral indoor air temperatures were, in several cases, surprisingly high. Most of the studied homes do not represent thermally comfortable homes as defined within either PMV or adaptive comfort limits. The study reviewed a wide range of factors that might strongly influence neutral temperatures indoors including the properties of dwellings, occupant's behaviours and attitudes towards high energy demand, loads and costs. This paper outlines the findings of that study and draws conclusions on individual design features of the studied homes that contribute to the comfort and discomfort experienced in Dammam's dwellings during the extreme summer weather. In late 2015 The Saudi Government hiked the price of domestic energy bills by 60% as a result of low oil prices, putting pressure on ordinary families to economise in their day to day living expenses. The lessons learnt from this study are discussed in relation to the challenge of maintaining comfort in Dammam's homes while reducing energy used for cooling them.