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Hygrothermal properties of building materials, climatic conditions and energy performance are interrelated and have to be considered simultaneously as part of an optimised building design. In this paper, a new approach to evaluate the energy consumption of residential buildings in Morocco is presented. This approach is based on the effect of coupled heat and moisture transfer in typical residential buildings and on their responses to the varied climatic conditions encountered in the country. This approach allows us to evaluate with better accuracy the response of building energy performance and the indoor comfort of building occupants. Annual energy consumption, cooling and heating energy requirements were estimated considering the six climatic zones of Morocco. Based on the results, terms related to coupled heat and moisture transfer can effectively correct the existing energy consumption calculations of the six zones of Morocco, which currently do not consider energy consumption due to coupled heat and moisture transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a mathematical model dealing with a coupled heat, air, and moisture transfer in a building envelope was developed. Based on the three‐following driving potential: vapor pressure, dry air pressure, and temperature, an application on a hygrothermal behavior of a real wall was carried out for different climatic conditions. For this purpose, a characterization of the heat and moisture properties of the materials constituting the wall made with red brick and cement mortar was carried out in the laboratory. This was used to evaluate experimentally the input parameters of the model as a function of relative humidity. To validate the numerical model, an experimental platform was improved. The wall was set up in a double‐climatic chamber with different boundary conditions, and then the temperature and humidity evolutions were recorded using several sensors within the wall thickness. The results have highlighted a good agreement between numerical simulation results and experimental ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]