Algeria – Souidania
Organisation : National Center for Integrated Building Research and Studies -CNERIB-
Location and climate. The building is located at CNERIB in Souidania, 21 km from Algiers (36°42′ N, 2°54′ E, altitude 136 m). The site has a Mediterranean climate and belongs to zone A of the Algerian thermal zoning for both winter and summer, with mild, humid winters and hot summers.
Building. LOGINOV is a single-storey office building with a floor area of 105 m². It includes a meeting room (52.7 m²), an office room (23.4 m²), a hall (16.7 m²) and a sanitary area (12.3 m²). It has five triple-glazed windows: four of 2.25 m² facing north, south, east and west, and one of 1.8 m² facing north.
Occupancy and use. The building is used by CNERIB staff as an office and meeting space during working hours on weekdays. It is also a full-scale demonstration and research platform for the national energy efficiency programs.
History and specificities. Designed to comply with national energy efficiency requirements, the prototype showcasesAlgerian-made construction materials and smart building technologies. It has been monitored through two experimental campaigns (January 2021 – December 2021 and January 2022-December 2022) carried out by CNERIB .
The main actions implemented to reduce the energy consumption of this building.
Efficiency investments
High-performance envelope built with local and innovative materials:
• Monomur bricks (local material): 30 cm self-insulating "thermo-acoustic" bricks made from Algerian clay (λ = 0.15 W/m·K), used for external and internal walls, lintels and junctions. They provide both insulation and high thermal inertia (external wall U = 0.27 W/m²·K).
• External polystyrene cladding: the façades are covered with a 5 cm polystyrene external coating (λ = 0.038 W/m·K), which adds continuous insulation on the outside of the monomur walls and limits thermal bridges.
• Rock wool: an additional 5 cm layer on the external walls of the meeting room to improve thermal and acoustic performance.
• Insulated roof: 10 cm of expanded polystyrene, a 15 cm polystyrene core and 6 cm of "Polytherm" lightweight concrete with polystyrene beads (λ = 0.11 W/m·K), giving U = 0.25 W/m²·K.
• Insulated ground floor: 5 cm of expanded polystyrene (U = 0.74 W/m²·K).
• New finishing materials: fiberglass-reinforced high-performance plasterboard (non-combustible, class A1) and a 15 mm acoustic mineral false ceiling (αw = 0.95, fire class A1, moisture resistant).
• Triple low-emissivity glazing: three 4 mm glass panes (Figure 3): Medistar, a low-emissivity glass; Medilear, a clear interlayer glass that lets light through; and Mediclear, a clear glass with improved UV filtration. The two gaps are filled with 90 % argon (Ug = 1.1 W/m²·K, light transmission 72 %, solar factor 52 %). The windows are combined with external white PVC roller shutters.
Smart building management system: a home-automation unit with a touch screen, accessible remotely by smartphone, tablet or PC, controls the heating and air-conditioning (zoned, with Comfort, Eco and Frost-protection modes), the lighting (micro-receivers with feedback) and the roller shutters.
• Energy monitoring: several electrical consumption sensors track heating and electrical uses in real time, by day, month and year. As shown in the TaHoma interface (Figure 4), the smart system controls 5 roller shutters, 10 lighting modules and 4 electric heating zones, together with a luminosity sensor and the consumption sensors (e.g. 392 Wh recorded for one day).
• Optimised shading control: four roller-shutter strategies were tested. The best one (shutters open during the day and closed at night) maximises winter solar gains while limiting night-time heat losses, without the extra motor consumption of multiple daily movements.
• Smart pre-heating and pre-ventilation: heating is started automatically one hour before the arrival of occupants, and pre-ventilation is scheduled before occupancy. This reduced CO₂ peaks from up to 1,600 ppm to 600–850 ppm.
• Occupant engagement: a questionnaire on thermal comfort, visual comfort and indoor air quality was administered to occupants and compared with the measurements, to adjust the operation of the systems to real needs.
• Setpoint guidelines: most occupants prefer about 21 °C, but up to 50 % asked for 23–24 °C at times. This led to awareness actions on sober setpoints, since overheating increases consumption without improving comfort.
• Scheduling: heating and cooling are operated only during occupancy, with automatic pre-heating, and the shutters follow a day/night schedule.
• Daylight first: the south-facing office benefits from high natural illuminance, with no glare reported by 65–90 % of occupants.
