Badria Jaffar

Thesis title: An examination of the residential building stock in Kuwait to inform energy efficiency policy

Supervisors: Prof Tadj Orezczyn; Dr. Rokia Raslan

2013-2016

Energy demand and consumption rates in Kuwait are amongst the highest in the world, and this is primarily due to a substantial amount of waste and overconsumption of energy in the residential building sector. At present energy is generated by the burning of fossil fuels. Energy demand is increasingly outstripping supply, leading to disturbing power shortages and a diversion to the domestic market of oil and gas originally intended for export. This poses serious energy security and economic implications in the foreseeable future, especially in light of the country’s rapidly rising population and construction rates.

In spite of the existence of an Energy Conservation Code of Practice for Buildings, homes in Kuwait continue to be designed and built with little consideration to their climate, consuming significant amounts of energy. There is also a significant lack of empirical data available about the Kuwait residential building stock, its fabric, the energy consuming equipment within homes and occupants’ demand for services. This research will thus examine energy use in a number of Kuwaiti homes before developing a residential building stock model to estimate baseline energy consumption and make predictions of the impact and potential of different efficiency measures to inform policy developments in this field.