Experimental and Simulation Study for Thermal Performance Analysis in Residential Buildings in Hot-Humid Climate (Comparative Study)

Abstract

Glazed windows cause intensive overheating due to solar radiation for buildings in hot climates. These glazed windows, according to their apertures also provide for cross ventilation which is necessary for cooling and improving thermal comfort. Many computerized environmental simulation tools are available to help designers predict the environmental performance of their design at the early stage. The thermal comfort study in this paper involved the use of field measurement and computer simulation tool i.e. Ecotect. Validation of Ecotect is carried out by comparing the computer simulation result with the field measurements of the east room at Fajar Harapan Hostel, USM which has a 50% glazed area to wall ratio. Output data from Ecotect has been compared to fieldwork data in terms of in/outdoor air temperatures and indoor air velocity. The impact of reducing the glazed area from WWR=50% in the base case to 25% and 00% has been investigated. Results show that field and simulated data compare well with a difference of less than 0.9oC between fieldwork and simulated indoor air temperatures. Results also show that rooms with a large glazed window area are relatively cool during night time only, and a smaller glazed window area performs well during daytime as well as nighttime.