Investigation of Thermal Comfort for ANaturally Ventilated House: Correlation between Climatic Design Strategy and Thermal Data Analysis

Abstract

One of the main factors contributing to climate change and global warming is architecture, which accountsfor about 50% of the country's greenhouse emissions due to construction and the energy needed to keep buildings operational. Sustainable architecture is believed to reduce emissions, andthisapproach has been practisedwithtraditional buildings. In Malaysia, a traditional Malay house (TMH) is one of thetraditional buildings, and it is initially naturally ventilated with occupant-controlled air ventilation to condition the space. Numerous experimental studies claimed that TMHhas demonstrated a good model for contemporary designers to understand climatic and environmental design, building systems, and design adaptability.One of the approaches is to practiseclimatic design strategies. However, there is a lack of study to determine if TMH is still relevant as a sustainable design that can adapt to current climate conditions. Thus, the study aims to investigate the adaptive indoor thermal comfort of a Negeri Sembilan Malay house in a hot-humid climate determinedby the correlation betweenclimatic design strategy and thermal data analysis. This study employed the Predictive Adaptivemodel by executing two stages of fieldwork: i) local climate background and ii) physical measurement (case study description and environmental data). The data were thenanalysed using the ACS of ASHRAE 55 and MS 2680:2017. The primary results revealed that 62% of the hourly indooroperative temperatureof the case study house waswithin 80 to 90 % of the acceptability limit. The optimal comfort hourly indooroperative temperaturewasbetween25.5 to 29.5 °C with a prevailing mean outdoor air temperaturebetween23 to 30 °C, which represents 90% of the acceptability limitrange. Moreover, the results also complied with the standards of ACS, where the average hourly indooroperative temperature was less than 31 °C,with a prevailing mean outdoor air temperatureless than32 °C, which wasan acceptable indoor state for occupants' comfort. The findingscompliedwith RMK 12 Theme 3, which aims to be a carbon-neutral country by practising sustainable architecture and construction. The design of naturally ventilated houses, such as Negeri Sembilan Malay houses in hot-humid climates, can be a model reference for modern housing design development.