Energy Efficient Features of Vernacular Houses in Tropical Hilly Area of Indonesia

Abstract

Energy efficient building is one of the alternative solutions to overcome the rapidly increasing use of energy consumption by the building sector. Traditional or vernacular houses rarely use mechanical means to create a comfortable living environment. Thus, the electrical energy consumed by traditional or vernacular houses was relatively low. It is believed that energy efficient features can be found in vernacular houses. Thence, this study explores the energy efficient features of vernacular houses, with a case study in the hilly area of the tropics, Palu-Indonesia. Field studies were conducted. Six vernacular houses were chosen purposively as the study samples based on building orientation, building form, roof form, wall construction, and type of opening. HOBO H21 and U12-012 were utilised to measure the internal and external air temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, wind speed and wind direction. The study result indicates that the sample houses’ thermal condition was slightly better than the external thermal condition. Sample 1 can modify the external air temperature up to 42.8 K during the daytime. The light condition, in contrast, showed poor performance. Thus, more transparent material with proper shading was needed to succeed daylighting in the buildings’ interior. Several energy efficient features of vernacular houses found in the samples are as follows: shallow building plan elongated to East – West, building geometry, resistive building materials, the use of ceilings, and side-hung or jalousie type of windows with an adequate size of the effective opening for ventilation and lighting.