Assessing the Thermal Performance of Traditional and Modern Building Materials for Hot and Arid Climate. Case Study: Er-Rachidia, Morocco

The current study aims the comparison of the energy performance for two building techniques—traditional and modern—located in Er-Rachidia, southeast of Morocco. To do so, a comparison of different building materials and their impact on the thermal load and heating and cooling has been carried out. The energy performance of the building is determined through a numerical study carried out by means of a dynamic multi-zone modeling of several configurations of the restaurant using TRNSYS 16 software. The simulations were performed with meteorological data given by Meteonorm7.3. The results show that clay construction reduces the temperature variation during the day to 3 °C, while in double-walled brick this variation can reach over 6 °C. Moreover, since both types of construction have the same energy performance, the difference in total consumption does not exceed 5%.