Evaluation of Thermal Comfort in Traditional Houses in a Tropical Climate

Jalil Shaeri,Ardalan Aflaki,Amin Habibi,Mahmood Yaghoubi

doi:10.3390/buildings8090126

Abstract

A considerable amount of energy is being consumed for heating and cooling indoor environments in order to provide thermal comfort. For older buildings located in the southern parts of Iran, particularly in Bushehr, many climatic and passive design strategies are being used to provide indoor thermal comfort. This architecture and these elements have been developed in response to unfavorable weather conditions. The current study aimed to identify those passive elements and evaluate indoor thermal comfort in older houses. To achieve these objectives, passive elements in main houses located in the ancient urban structure were first identified. Then, a house in the coastal belt, Tabib’s house, and another house inside the ancient urban structure, Nozari’s house, were selected for the purpose of field measurement. The results revealed that the passive techniques used in these older houses significantly provide sufficient indoor thermal conditions. The mean measured predicted mean vote (PMV) of Tabib’s rooms was 0.88 and the mean measured PMV of Nozari’s rooms was 0.91, which were in an acceptable range. The measured predicted percentage of dissatisfied of rooms in both houses were lower than 10%. The main factor in creating indoor thermal comfort in these houses was the natural ventilation and its availability in the selected houses.

Highlights

Over 50% of people in the world live in cities and this amount will increase up to 80% by 2030 [1].Considerable amounts of energy are used in the building sector to create indoor thermal comfort.cities are the source of 70% of CO2 production in the world [2]
Results of this study revealed that architectural elements like Transom Ventilation Panels (TVPs) and ornamental windows in all sides of the building could significantly improve indoor ventilation and air change rate [9]
Thermal conditions of an older building were evaluated in Evora, Portugal; the results revealed that passive cooling techniques can improve indoor thermal comfort, especially in hot seasons

Summary

Introduction

Over 50% of people in the world live in cities and this amount will increase up to 80% by 2030 [1].Considerable amounts of energy are used in the building sector to create indoor thermal comfort.cities are the source of 70% of CO2 production in the world [2]. Over 50% of people in the world live in cities and this amount will increase up to 80% by 2030 [1]. Considerable amounts of energy are used in the building sector to create indoor thermal comfort. Cities are the source of 70% of CO2 production in the world [2]. Comfortable indoor environments are due to the response of the original building architecture to seasonal variations in climate. Climatic strategies that have been used in local and traditional buildings for many years were based on trial and error; these strategies provide valuable knowledge that has been neglected in modern architecture [4]. Studies that were conducted on small scales have applied strategies of local and traditional architecture for modern buildings in multi-climates

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion