Low-cost DIY thermal upgrades for overheating mitigation in slum houses in Latin America & Caribbean

Abstract

Over one billion of the world’s population live in slum houses (SHs), mostly self-built. Due to their poor construction and lack of mechanical cooling in hot regions, SHs are particularly vulnerable to overheating and ongoing climate change. This paper presents the overheating mitigation results of four selected DIY low-cost roof upgrades for a typical SH in Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) to allow residents self-improvement. This study evaluates two insulation techniques and two natural ventilation devices, namely: a recycled Tetra Pak insulation board (TI), a radiant barrier, a cylindrical chimney, and a solar chimney, using a combination of experimental and numerical approaches that allow for increased reliability of the results, and widespread assessment of the impacts of the proposed strategies in several LAC locations under current and predicted future climates (2050). The results appointed the TI insulation combined with scheduled natural ventilation, as the most effective mitigation strategy, for less than 1€/m2, reaching a maximum improvement in the hottest cities of 3.1 °C of indoor operative temperature with an increased effect up to 3.3 °C in the 2050 scenario. Finally, this overheating mitigation solution is presented with an instruction manual to build and install it as an affordable SH upgrade.