A new set of indicators to evaluate the bioclimatic performance of air conditioned buildings in a hot and humid climate

Abstract

The current challenge is to reduce the building energy consumption, in hot and humid climates, for which air conditioning is widespread. Up to now, the lack of criteria that identify the available cooling resources and the level of performance of technical solution has represented the major obstacle. To address these issues, the authors propose a new set of indicators to fully inform the decision-making process of the bioclimatic design of fully space-conditioned buildings in a hot and humid climate. This set of indicators provides an overview of the exploitable environmental resource (external air through external convection, natural ventilation and sky radiation cooling) referred as the Environmental Resource Indicators and of the capacity of the building to exploit those resources referred as the Building Performance Indicators. The indicators are implemented for a very basic two-story residential building in the hot, humid climate of Djibouti. The case study shows not only the ability of the indicators to reflect the bioclimatic performances of the buildings but also their ability to give an overview of the building heat exchanges, from which the implication of improper bioclimatic solutions on building cooling consumptions can easily be identified. These indicators are a means to help choose which technical solutions are most suited to the local climate, which is very useful for designers and architects in the early stages of building design.