THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT BUILDING TYPOLOGIES IN THIMPHU

Abstract

The building sector in Bhutan is responsible for 42% of total energy and consumes 242,916 TOE of thermal energy. The maximum thermal energy was used for space heating. As per the studies conducted on the energy efficiency of the buildings in Bhutan, the buildings are found to be the worst performance in terms of thermal and airtightness. Without the proper insulation, lack of choice of the building materials as per the climatic conditions and lacks of awareness in the society about the green building practices has led to poor indoor quality of life. Buildings located inthe high region are found to be uncomfortably cold during winter months.This research focuses on studying the thermal performance of different building typologies. The main findings of this research were on enhancing indoor thermal comfort and reducing heating energy demand by the incorporation of passive measures. The results were achieved by simulating the buildings in EnergyPlus software using the data collected from questionnaires and field surveys. The simulation results showed that among the investigated buildings, a concrete hollow block wall located at Kabesa has the less comfort hour of 15% at the existing condition. When passive interventions were incorporated into the building, the thermal comfort hours were achievable up to 32% with the load reduction potential of 65%.As for the traditional house with the adobe brick wall and timber wall at Changdagang, had more comfort hours than the building located at Kabesa. With the different set of passive intervention, it was found that comfort hour of 38% to 41% and load reduction of 25.9% can be achieved for the building with adobe brick wall and timber wall respectively. Whereas for stone masonry with cement mortar and RCC framed structure located at Begana and Langdru had a thermal comfort hour of more that 30%. However, RCC framed structure was reported to have huge demand for heating energy compared to stone masonry with cement mortar. The passive intervention prepared for RCC and stone masonry had the potential to achieve 41%-57% of thermal comfort hours. The results from all the investigated buildings revealed that the inclusion of passive design could improve indoor thermal comfort and can achieve a reduction in heating energy demand.