Impact of indoor air volume on thermal performance in social housing with mixed mode ventilation in three different climates.

Abstract

Abstract There are prototypes of social housing massively built in contrasting climatic conditions, generating thermal comfort needs that are difficult to satisfy by the users themselves. Variation of indoor air volume in living spaces where the use of air conditioning and natural ventilation strategies provides elements to improve thermal comfort conditions. This research shows the thermal performance located in a representative social housing according to Mexico s National Housing Commission. Operative temperature results from a benchmark case were compared to six Virtual Evaluation Models, using the Dynamic Thermal Simulation tool Design Builder® from the perspective of probability. The main objective was to determine the minimum use of active systems with different indoor air volumes and improve comfort conditions to promote sustainable living in social housing. The analysis was conducted under an adaptive comfort range according to three different climate conditions in Mexico adopting a Numerical Theoretical Method. The main findings can be divided into two parts: a) the impact of the indoor air volume on thermal performance was evidenced in a proportion of time in three representative climates of the central region of Mexico, and b) no relationship was found between indoor air volume and thermal comfort in sub-humid cold climate; in sub-humid temperate climate, the same number of comfort hours was found in two different models, and in sub-humid warm climate, an inversely proportional relationship was found between indoor air volume and the comfort hours. This findings implies a greater knowledge relative to what we know about sub-humid cold, temperate and warm climates.