Proposal for Improvement of Thermal Environment of Traditional House in Indonesia

Abstract

The existing lowland buildings of tropical regions generally have a hot indoor environment. A previous study suggested that ventilation is the most effective way to solve the hot environment of lowland areas. This study employed traditional tropical building simulation of PMV using Ecotect Analysis and Ansys Fluent to propose a building design as solution step of a thermal environment problem on an existing condition. The results showed that roof is the most critical building envelope and additional overhangs have the ability to reduce solar radiation of the transition space. Horizontal and vertical ventilation in opened or closed door cases resulted in thermal comfort and an even of air temperature distribution. The intake fan is useful for providing a higher and more distributed wind speed of the indoor area, reducing the air temperature by approximately 2℃ compared to that using natural ventilation. The proposed building has the ability to reduce the cooling load by 91.2% compared to existing, whereas when optimized material building showed a decrease in cooling load of only 39.9%. For the occupant indices, this study also recommends that it is important to reduce cooling load by maintaining simple clothing and avoiding strenuous activities.