## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Description of Case Studies  
Three cases were considered for this study: a house, office building, and warehouse, representing small, medium, and large sized areas, respectively (Figure 1). The selected house had passages on two sides. Windows of normal size were available on the east and west sides to provide good lighting for the house. The window glass was an ordinary glass. The windows were without shades. The architect suggested that it was an old fashion now and is disappearing from Pakistan, but shades are recommended as per the ASHRAE code because shades reduce direct sunlight to all windows. The washroom size and ventilation were adequately designed with low-flow taps to save water. The concept of recycled water and rain storage was not applied to the selected house. The ASHRAE code encourages exposure to greenery and the outside environment to increase work potential and creativity. The lawn was kept in the design to ensure a healthy environment. The bins were added into many corners of the house to ensure clean environment and to gain US LEED points. Table 2 shows the details of the selected buildings.  
Though initially there did not seem to be much of a difference between an office building and a house, there were a lot of differences, the majority of which applied to the operation timings. Unlike a house, a major consumption of electricity and fuel was attributed to day timing for the office building. A good daytime work environment requires certain temperature levels to be maintained. This requires air conditioners to bring rooms to a comfortable temperature. In the winter season, rooms require heaters which may run on gas or electricity. In an office building, dedicated separate restrooms properly placed outside the main building were designed. They not only have low flush toilets and low flow sinks, but also have recycled stormwater capability. The water from the kitchen and other uses was redirected to be used in the flushing of toilets. Glass materials for windows were high-heat emittance and low-absorption materials. The insulations were provided for the walls and roof. The permanent bin locations were added for the parking and interior galleries. The selected warehouse was a bulk storage place for a company. Solar panels were used on the roofs. The roofs and walls were provided with the effective insulation. Energy-efficient electric equipment and low-flow sinks and toilets were used. The cost was further recovered via the daytime operation of electricity generated by the solar panels.  
It is very complicated to manually verify energy calculations. ASHRAE recommended to develop an alternate quasianalytic solution called the standard method of testing (SMOT). For this, a 3D model of a room with the dimensions 8.0 m \(\times\) 2.0 m \(\times\) 2.7 m (ASHARE base model) was developed and compared in the results. This test verified the software output  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameters** & **House** & **Office** & **Warehouse** \\ \hline Number of stories & 2 & 2 & 1 \\ Total area & 1980 ft\({}^{2}\) & 27,000 ft\({}^{2}\) & 20,000 ft\({}^{2}\) \\ Total covered area & 1050 ft\({}^{2}\) & 9000 ft\({}^{2}\) & 16,000 ft\({}^{2}\) \\ Ceiling height & 10 ft & 10 ft & 27 ft (inclined roof) \\ Orientation & South & South-East & North \\ People occupancy & 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. & 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. & 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. \\ Lighting schedule & 6 a.m. to 8 a.m./ & 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. & 24 h \\ HVAC & 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. & 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. & 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. \\ Occupancies & 1 family, 7 people & 50 employees & 150 employees \\ Indoor design temperature & 26 \({}^{\circ}\)C & 26 \({}^{\circ}\)C & 26 \({}^{\circ}\)C \\ Water heating service & Yes/Winters & Yes & Yes/Winters \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Details of case study buildings.  
Figure 1: Model of the case study buildings: (**a**) House; (**b**) Office; (**c**) Warehouse.  
results without performing complex formulations and checked them against the cooling and heating requirements.