Energy Efficiency and Thermal Performance of Office Buildings Integrated with Passive Strategies in Coastal Regions of Humid and Hot Tropical Climates in Madagascar

Modeste Kameni Nematchoua,José A Orosa,Jean Christophe Vanona

doi:10.3390/app10072438

Abstract

Researchers have used passive strategies, such as the implementation of thermal insulation and the use of phase change materials (PCM), in several studies, but some problems have not yet been solved. It is the case of showing the real effect of external shading combined with thermal insulation and phase change materials to improve the thermal performance and energy efficiency of office buildings in tropical coastal areas. Another pending problem to be solved is to define the impact produced by passive strategies on the performance of workers in office buildings in coastal zones. It is with a view to answering all these questions that this study was envisaged with the main objective of evaluating, analyzing, comparing, and discussing the effect of thermal insulation and phase change materials on thermal comfort and energy demand in coastal areas of hot and humid tropical climates located in the island of Madagascar. In this sense, hourly climate data for the past 30 years have served as the basis for assessing environmental conditions of future climate. It was found that the PCMs have a more significant effect on the coastal zone of hot climates than humid tropical climates. The results of the statistical analyses showed that the application of passive strategies stabilizes indoor air temperatures to between 23 °C and 28 °C in the offices, which is the recommended comfort range in these regions. In the coastal regions of Madagascar, up to 30% of cooling energy is expected to be reduced by combining the introduction of thermal insulation and PCM materials.

Highlights

Climate change is a source of upheaval in the usual way of life of many populations of the world [1]
In Mahajunga, 11.8% in Toamasina, and 11.9% in Taolagnaro during dry and rainy seasons. These results show that phase change materials (PCM) materials have a more significant effect regarding cooling energy saving in warm tropical climates (e.g., Mahajunga city) than other coastal climate regions
In the four cities located in the coastal zone, the application of insulation on the walls and roof allows energy consumption to be reduced by 8%–15%; the introduction of PCM equipment reduced between 10%–18% of total energy per year, and by combining insulation, shading, and PCM material, a reduction in the energy consumption is estimated by 15%–35%.These results show that after 2050, passive strategies will be insufficient to improve the thermal performance of the due to the strong pressure of global warming

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is a source of upheaval in the usual way of life of many populations of the world [1]. Given the risks of a shortage of fossil fuel sources and taking into account global population growth, newbuildings must meet more requirements than usual [5,6]. It is, a question of proposing residential buildings capable of ensuring acceptable comfort with a minimum of energy consumed, or even zero [7]. In most countries of the world, buildings currently represent 40% of the total energy consumption and 36% of total

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