Retrospective for Optimizing the Energy Performance of a Contemporary House Using Date Palm-Based Materials

The north of Tunisia is characterized by a subtropical Mediterranean climate, the south, meanwhile, benefits from an arid Saharan climate, and yet, in recent years, the contemporary construction system has invaded all regions. Standard, this process has shown failures both thermally and energetically. Indeed, the unsuitability of buildings to the climate is not without consequences, since the building sector contributes 30% to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and 40% of energy consumption. Faced with the climatic damage caused by this sector, there is no longer any question of considering a building that does not take into account a sustainable approach. It is with this in mind that research is placing more and more emphasis on “bio-based” materials for their countless advantages. To this end, this article proposes, via an experimental study based on numerical simulation on the Trnsys model (version 16), to replace the envelope of a contemporary villa with a concrete envelope of date palm fibers (DPF). By saving 26% of energy in cooling (around 1371.7 kWh), the date palm-based envelope is a possible response to the reduction in energy and its impact on the environment. This work has also made it possible to enhance our local resources, in this case the plant fibers of the date palm which come from the Sahara of southern Tunisia, by highlighting their energy performance as well as their ecological footprint in order to integrate them in a rational way in the field of construction.