Thermal impact of sinking residential buildings in hot regions – Kuwait as a case study

Abstract

This paper is concerned with improving residential building thermal performance at early design stage. The modification considered in this work was based on reducing external heat gain via sinking the building or part of it. Three scenarios were proposed of which the most acceptable one was thermally analysed. The analysis was based on integrated dynamic simulation of the whole building thermal performance. The external boundary was defined by a climate file of a typical meteorological year for Kuwait. The external convective heat transfer coefficient for all surfaces was determined by means of full scale CFD model of the residential building. Four orientations were considered for the selected building in order to ensure the generality of the outcome of the investigation. For a typical residential building, HVAC annual power conservation equal to 4% was reached by sinking the building by one level.