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the cold season and rising humidity in the hot season, as well as the use of artificial lighting,despite the presence of sufficient natural light, due to improper design of space are amongthese habits. Due to the lack of sufficient information to achieve a comfort level such asconsumer exploitation pattern, modeling and operational errors, material quality, accuratedetermination of cloudy days and building occupancy conditions (comfort temperature andtype of occupant coverage), was considered a safety factor with a coefficient of 1.4. Table 10shows the results of the thermal analysis of the building with and without observing theprinciples of sustainability and the annual energy yield of the photovoltaic system.As previously mentioned, the Ecotect analysis specified the appropriate orientation ofthe structure as the north-south direction to the south in the area. Observing the principles ofsustainable and passive architecture, including the use of Trombe wall, canopy and needleleaved trees in the wind-catching side of the plan and selection of the optimal designorientation for maximum use of the sun with respect to the surrounding winds, decreasedthe amount of energy by 30% in the building studied, reducing this amount from25,443 kWh/year to 17,767 kWh/year. The capacity of the photovoltaic system wasdetermined based on default items in PVsyst software (as shown in Table 7 and Figure 6).As a ZEB is of the grid-connected type, the energy storage system was not considered in thisstudy. Hence, if the energy obtained is less than the required amount of energy over a fewconsecutive cloudy days, the building will provide its energy from the power grid and indays when the system has surplus energy, this energy will be injected into the grid. Thus,the annual energy required of the building and energy yield of the renewable energy systemcan be compared with each other. As explained, the energy required for the building bycomplying with the principles of sustainable design is 17,767 kWh/year. Also, the energyproduced by the photovoltaic system will be equal to 26,291 kWh per year, which is about48% more than the energy required by the building. Hence, considering the 30% reductionin energy requirements of the building and the monthly energy produced by thephotovoltaic system, as shown in Figure 7, it can be met that achieving the zero-energybuilding goals is possible, albeit the need for economic analysis.ConclusionA review of past studies shows that 50% of the world%u2019s raw materials are used in buildings.In Iran, the construction sector, with an average consumption of 41.42%, has a high share ofenergy consumption in the country. Meanwhile, according to published statistics, Iran isranked 11th among the countries with the highest rates of energy consumption. As manyIranian cities have a cold and semi-arid climate, the energy consumption rate is significantin these areas. In this study, aiming to examine the feasibility and simulate the ZEB in thecold and semi-arid climate of Mashhad, Meteonorm software was used to obtainmeteorological data of the study area. AutoCAD and Ecotect software were used to create,volumizing and analyze climatic data in the case study building. Also, DesignBuilder andPVsyst software were used for thermal simulation and renewable energy system design,Table 10.Comparison ofsoftware resultsEnergyTotal annualenergy (kWh)Amount of energy required for building without observing the principles of sustainability 25,443Amount of energy required for building with observing the principles of sustainability 17,767Amount of energy required for building taking into account a safety factor of 1.4 24,874The energy yield of the PV system 26,291IJESM