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The amount of energy consumption of buildings has obtained international concern so the concept of zero energy building becomes a target for building designers. There are various definitions and evaluation methods for efficient buildings. However, detailed research about the critical parameters that have a major effect through the operational time to reduce the energy consumption is not emphasized as this paper represents. The main aim of this study is to identify the effect of applicable interventions on energy consumption parameters with their sensitivity to each other to reach zero energy building. Relatedly, the cost of energy reduction is also determined.

Energy consumption parameters were defined as area lightings, space heating, space cooling, ventilation fans, pumps, auxiliary equipment and related miscellaneous equipment. The effect of each applied intervention on energy consumption was classified as high, medium, low, very low, no effect and negative effect by utilizing a sensitivity analysis. The base case's energy model is created by utilizing energy performance software such as e-Quest. Accordingly, energy performance improvement scenarios are developed by applying interventions such as lamp replacements, sensors, heat pumps and photovoltaic panels’ integration. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses of each intervention were developed for consumed energy and its cost.

Results indicated the electric consumption is more effective than gas consumption on primary energy and energy cost. Solar systems decline primary energy by 78.53%, lighting systems by 13.47% and heat pump by 5.48% in this building; therefore, integrating mentioned strategies could rise the improvement rate to 100%, in other words, zero amount of energy is using from the grid that means saving $ 5,750.39 in one year.

The study can be applied to similar buildings. It is worthwhile to investigate suggested methods in diverse buildings with different functions and climates in future works.

This study aims to investigate of energy consumption of an educational building in the Mediterranean climate to convert an existing building into a zero energy building by saving energy and renewable sources. Subsequent purposes are analyzing the effect of each strategy on energy consumption and cost.

The novelty of this study is filling gaps in sensitivity analysis of energy consumption parameters by not only identifying their effect on overall energy consumption but also identifying their effect on each other. Some interventions may have a positive effect on overall consumption while having a negative effect on each other. Identifying this critical effect in detail not only further improves the energy performance, but also may affect the decision-making of the interventions.

Living walls (LWs), vegetated walls with an integrated growth layer behind, are being increasingly incorporated in buildings. Examining plant characteristics’ comparative impacts on LWs’ energy efficiency-related thermal behavior was aimed, considering that studies on their relative effects are limited. LWs of varying leaf albedo, leaf transmittance and leaf area index (LAI) were studied for Antalya, Turkey for typical days of four seasons.

Dynamic simulations run by Envi-met were used to assess the plant characteristics’ influence on seasonal and orientation-based heat fluxes. After model calibration, a sensitivity analysis was conducted through 112 simulations. The minimum, mean and maximum values were investigated for each plant characteristic. Energy need (regardless of orientation), temperature and heat flux results were compared among different scenarios, including a building without LW, to evaluate energy efficiency and variables’ impacts.

LWs reduced annual energy consumption in Antalya, despite increasing energy needs in winter. South and west facades were particularly advantageous for energy efficiency. The impacts of leaf albedo and transmittance were more significant (44–46%) than LAI (10%) in determining LWs’ effectiveness. The changes in plant characteristics changed the energy needs up to ca 1%.

This study can potentially contribute to generating guiding principles for architects considering LW use in their designs in hot-humid climates.

The plant characteristics’ relative impacts on energy efficiency, which cannot be easily determined by experimental studies, were examined using parametric simulation results regarding three plant characteristics.