Abstract
The building sector in Saudi Arabia imposes significant energy and environmental challenges at the national level. To address these challenges, it is crucial to promote sustainable buildings. Since energy and environmental performance of buildings is closely related to climate conditions both in terms of energy consumption and potential for renewable energy, it is crucial to investigate these conditions. In Saudi Arabia, there is a great deal of variation in terms of climatic features. Therefore, the country needs to be divided into zones with common climatic characteristics. In literature there are a number of approaches to classify Saudi Arabia in climatic zones, dividing the country from one to nine zones. For building energy modelling at the national level, it is critical to select an appropriate climatic classification scheme. This article examined 16 different climatic classification methods to identify the most appropriate one for building energy modelling. Through the development of weighted criteria assessment matrix based upon the Decision-Matrix method, the present work recommends Saudi Arabia to be classified into five inhabited distinctive climatic zones represented by Dhahran, Guriat, Riyadh, Jeddah, Khamis Mushait. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.