Improving natural ventilation for an energy-efficient low-income apartment in the tropic

Abstract

The increasing number of populations in large cities such as Jakarta led to increased demand for low-income housing, and it leads to the need of low-cost apartment buildings as well. Generally, based on the needs of healthy indoor environment and thermal comfort in the tropic, low cost housing in Jakarta uses single loaded corridor to draw air through two-way opposite openings for cross ventilation in promoting natural ventilation. In high rise apartment buildings, the use of double loaded corridor will be more efficient in space and construction costs but has limitations in providing ideal conditions for cross ventilation. This study focused on assessing the effect of the openings on double-loaded corridor, in high-rise low-income housing to promote better natural ventilation. This study aims to obtain the opening and corridor for natural ventilation in low income vertical housing. The research method is developed by the experimental research with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The simulation uses Ecotec and Winair program to meet the wind profile inside the building. The variable data is observed from design typology, dimension of opening and corridor, and wind data. To refine the objective, this study focuses on high-rise low-income housing design typology (20 floors).