Field Investigation on Indoor Thermal Environment of a High-rise Condominium in Hot-humid Climate of Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

The highest possession of condominium supply among Bangkok's real estate market tends toward dramatic increase in energy consumption of the building sector. Condominium's entrepreneurs have less concerns on green building evaluation due to the barrier of complication in criteria and the investment in energy efficient technology is generally higher per square meter. From the pilot study on indoor thermal environment of a high-rise condominium in the hot-humid climate of Bangkok, Thailand, during May 9th to June 8th, 2015, the highest demanded one bedroom unit was selected. The room conditions during the field measurement were chosen based on the occupancy characteristics towards the use of natural ventilation (NA) and air conditioning system (AC). The results show that by applying natural ventilation during the day while using an air-conditioning system at night is an effective approach for reducing the room's environmental temperature (EnvT). During the daytime with natural ventilation, heat gain and heat loss occur rapidly because the difference between the indoor and the outdoor air temperature is marginal. Dragging EnvT into the comfort zone is possible with an indoor air velocity of 1.5 m/s. In addition, low outdoor air temperature is preferable for natural ventilation since the thermal energy absorbed by internal surfaces increases the cooling load. In a hot-humid climatic region, relative humidity is very high at night. The addition of using air conditioning system at night is likely to provide a comfortable thermal environment.