Papers by Keyword: Warm Humid Climate

Abstract: Green roof application on real residential buildings in Tamilnadu, India is very limited and mostly concentrated in major cities mainly for visual purposes. There is not enough research has been conducted to boost up the benefits of green roof system in Warm and Humid weather in India. Green roofs have the potential to improve the thermal performance of a roofing system through shading, insulation, evapotranspiration and thermal mass, thus reducing a building’s energy demand for space conditioning. To quantify the thermal performance and energy efficiency of green roofs an experimental investigation was done in residential buildings of Madurai, Tamilnadu, India. This paper refers to the analysis of the thermal properties and indoor thermal performance study of the green roof. The investigation were implemented in two phases: during the first phase, extended surface, air temperature and relative humidity measurements were taken at the indoor and outdoor environment of the buildings where the green roof had installed and during the second phase of the study, the thermal properties of the green roof, as well as, the cooling potential were examined. Results showed vegetative roofs reduced heat gain compared to the white reflective roofs and conventional reinforced cement concrete due to the thermal mass, extra insulation, and evapo-transpiration associated with the vegetative roofing systems. The results also proved that green roofs provide acceptable indoor thermal performance with respect to the other conventional roofs while re-establishing the relationship between human and environment, which have been destroyed due to the rapid urbanization.

Abstract: Thermal comfort problems experienced in buildings in warm humid climates has been a major concern for designers in the environmental design specialty especially in Nigeria and other developing countries. This paper through controlled experiments studies the effect of window shading on indoor comfort levels of buildings exposed to warm humid climates. Experimental model buildings with shaded and non-shaded windows were constructed for this purpose. Comfort data were obtained from the buildings and meteorological stations including comfort parametric ranges. The data were analyzed with statistical tools involving the central tendency and dispersion. Hypotheses were tested. Results showed that window shading has significant effect on the comfort level of buildings and consequently energy usage.

Abstract: The achievement of energy efficiency in the building sub-sector is considered a very important issue in contemporary research and development efforts by engineers, architects and environmentalists. This is because of its direct impact on national economies and indirectly on the environment and the general well being of future generations. This paper attempts an evaluation of the potentials of passive design in the warm humid zone of Nigeria by assessing the level of energy conservation in building through solar orientation. Model experimental buildings were constructed and comfort factors (indoor and out door temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, etc) measured, and the climatic and technical (construction) factors determined for each of the model buildings using known methods. Regression model on the effect of solar radiation on the climatic and technical factors reflecting the amount of heat energy required to achieve an acceptable comfort level for each building was formulated. Results from the study show that there is strong evidence of tremendous potentials in passive design as ecotechique for energy conservation in buildings.