Indoor Thermal Environment in Tropical Climate Residential Building

Abstract

Abstract. Indoor thermal environment is one of the criteria in sustainable building. This criterion is important in ensuring a healthy indoor environment for the occupants. The consideration of environmental concerns at the early design stage would effectively integrate the sustainability of the building environment. Global climate changes such as global warming do affect human comfort since people spend most of their time and activities in the building. The increasing of urban population required additional housing for households, as well as places to shop, office and other facilities. Occupants are now more conscious the importance of sustainability for a better quality of life. Good thermal environment is essential for human wellness and comfort. A residential environment will influence residents' health and safety. The global warming increase the earth's temperature and greenhouse emission to the atmosphere cause adverse effects to the outdoor environment. Residential developments modify the materials, structure and energy balance in urban climate effects of human economic activities. As an indoor environment is influenced by the outdoor condition, the factors affecting indoor thermal environment are crucial in improving a comfortable and healthy environment in residential building. The microclimatic of a site such as temperature and relative humidity, and wind movement led to the variation of indoor thermal environment in the building.

Developing Sustainable Planning for Heritage Conservation in the Tropics: A Gis-Based Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Profile for Historic Archives in Puerto Rico

“…The data collected with this tool showed a good approximation from each archivist perception by means of a simple, fast and accurate data on line. The survey includes more information that will be analyze in a future, but for now, we are focus in the estimation of several risk types (12) in the island of Puerto Rico. The results of the NRL were shown in Fig.…”

“…From here, the peculiarity of have "closed-green-house style" in buildings, in a topical's micro and meso climate, will depend on the efficiency of the High Velocity Air Conditioning Systems (HVAC's). As noted by some researchers in the tropics, the stability and variability of temperature, relative humidity and dew point represents the greatest challenge for the conservation of cultural artifacts in the tropics [12], [13]. In Puerto Rico, there are a wide variety of archives in each seventytwo (72) municipalities.…”

Climate responsive buildings: a comfort assessment of buildings on KNUST campus, Kumasi

“…Givoni (1998) in his book Climatic consideration in building and urban design , vernacular architecture has been developed over many centuries in response to many factors, which includes the local climate of the environment. Jamaludin et al (2014) agreed with Givoni (1998) on that but included other factors such as cultural background, economy and locally available building materials as cited in Jamaludin et al (2014). With precedence from vernacular architecture coupled with modern materials and new information about the interaction between indoor and outdoor environments, design solutions can provide more comfortable indoor spaces (Lehmann, 2011; Givoni, 1998).…”

“…Mishra et al (2017) also ascertained that educational facilities need to stimulate students’ productivity and learning as there is a direct correlation between their thermal environments and students’ well-being and performance. Jamaludin et al (2014) evaluated the performance of several natural ventilation strategies in unoccupied student rooms in an old low-rise multi-residential building on a university campus. They found natural ventilation to be the most effective strategy resulting in recorded mean temperature values below 30°C and relative humidity values above 70 per cent.…”

Toward 100% sustainable energy production and a structural decrease in energy demand: Curacao, as a case study of small island developing states

“…Excessive solar radiation causes a building's indoor temperature to rise as a consequence of the solar heat infiltration. Therefore, the orientation of a building in the tropics is crucial (Jamaludin, Khamidi, Wahab, & Klufallah, 2014) because it can influence access to natural light, protection from excessive solar radiation, and the extent of the prevailing winds on the façades of the building. The prevailing winds have two functions, namely to facilitate ventilation in a building as well as to ventilate the façades of the building ('Energy efficiency guidelines', 2013).…”