Thermal and daylighting evaluation: the basic of energy efficient house design at the earliest stages

Abstract

The increase in electrical energy used in residential buildings is due to their designs being less responsive to the local climate. This research aims to analyse the implementation of energy efficient house design principles for the tropical, hilly area. The tropical, hilly area has distinctive climate characteristics compared to the lowland tropical area. Thus, it resulted in many challenges in providing internal comfort conditions for the occupants by architectural design only. Palu, Sulawesi Tengah Province of Indonesia, was selected as the case study location. The analyses were carried out by modelling three sample houses and simulating their daylighting and natural ventilation condition. Three house models were built considering several design parameters such as house orientation, geometry, plan, type and position of the openings. Simulations settings included different building materials, the number of occupants, operational schedules and electricity usage schedules. The operative temperature was used for thermal analysis. Meanwhile, spatial daylight Autonomy (sDA) of 100/50% was used for daylighting analysis. The result of the study provided the visualisations of thermal and daylighting conditions for each sample model. Design models of energy efficient houses suitable for the tropical hilly area were also recommended.