Yasmin Eid
This study investigates thermal retrofitting strategies for single-family social housing in North Sinai, Egypt, with potential relevance to national decarbonization objectives. The research evaluates the thermal performance of locally sourced by-product materials, including barley straw (BS) and date palm (DP) waste, incorporated into compressed earth masonry and prefabricated cladding systems. These waste-based alternatives are benchmarked against the Egyptian residential building energy efficiency (RBEE) code and conventional synthetic insulation. Dynamic thermal simulations were conducted for the hot-humid climate of Bir El-Abd under both natural ventilation (NV) and mixed-mode ventilation (MMV) conditions. Simulation results indicate that the proposed interventions improved thermal performance relative to the baseline model. Under NV, the 15 cm BS masonry reduced annual discomfort hours by 23.7%, achieving approximately 89% of the discomfort reduction observed in the 60 cm theoretical variant. Under MMV, this configuration reduced annual cooling electricity use by 27.9%, with operational CO2 emissions decreasing to approximately 939.3 kg. Compared with the 15 cm BS masonry, the 6 cm DPM panel achieved a 21.9% reduction in discomfort hours and a 28.8% reduction in annual total heating and cooling electricity use for the South orientation. While BS masonry demonstrated higher thermal performance, the DPM cladding may offer a lower-profile alternative with reduced spatial impact. These results suggest that localized biocomposites may offer a potential pathway for reducing energy use and operational emissions in similar residential retrofit contexts.