Abstract

Introduction
Developing countries face several challenges concerning energy provision. This is more perilous in conflict zones like Palestine due to political instability. A tremendous energy demand in the Palestinian Territories in recent years was created by population growth, increasing living standards and rapid industrial growth [1]. The energy shortage is coupled with the unsustainable consumption of energy attributable to the poor quality of housing in terms of thermal performance [2]. In many cases, users cannot reach thermal comfort level in winter which affects their health and well-being [3, 4]. Therefore, there is a crucial requirement to enhance the thermal performance and optimize the energy consumption considering the occupants' behaviour [5, 6]. This paper investigates the energy savings for heating and cooling of residential buildings with specific reference to Palestine. A case study apartment in a residential building in Hebron is used to verify the developed approach of energy optimisation.

Goal and scope
The main goal of this paper is to estimate the energy savings through retrofitting of the building envelop using a calibrated model of an apartment in the city of Hebron, West Bank, Palestine during the heating season.