Comparison between environmentally designed houses and standard houses regarding thermal behavior

Abstract

Based on the literature review and environmental studies, it is well known that the fundamental design standards focus on the building orientation, materials, form, window wall ratio, and passive tools for cooling in hot climates. This was the reason behind this paper, to verify and prove that if a building is designed according to these standards then it could achieve thermal comfort and energy efficiency. So, a comparison was held between four case studies, two of them were designed according to those standards and the other two were not. Hygrometer data loggers that measure ambient air temperature and relative humidity were placed in living rooms and on roofs in the four villas for one month in order to compare and analyse the measurements. In the coming paragraphs, each case study is explained and measurements and analysis are presented in order to reach the conclusion of this paper study. Fixed parameters were set for comparison between the four cases, those parameters were as follows: Orientation- wall thickness- building material- WWR (window wall ratio) - Number of Floors- Type of roof – Surroundings. Data was collected based on these parameters to be able to compare between the results. After comparing those parameters in the four villas, it was concluded the great influence of the surrounding buildings on each villa on its internal temperature. And so therefore a simulation has been made to measure the effect of the surrounding buildings.