Passive Strategies of Naturally Ventilated Residential Houses in the Equatorial Humid Tropics

Abstract

The thermal performance of any house depends on the climatic conditions surrounded the buildings. The aim of this study is to investigate the available strategies for building passive design. This is while making the building comfortable and efficient. Mahoney tables, bioclimatic chart and Climate Consultant software were used to analyze the available strategies in improving the indoor thermal performance of the building for occupants’ thermal comfort. Kota Kinabalu city (Malaysia) and Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) are the selected locations in this study. The results showed that all the methods agreed that ventilation is the best approach for passive cooling. Many recommended passive strategies for indoor cooling were suggested and discussed in this article. Overall, thermal comfort of the occupants was not achievable all the time. In the humid tropics heat gain is also not recommended all year round.