Irene Marincic

Bioclimatic and Energy Efficiency Considerations for Social Housing: A Case Study in Hot Dry Climate

The development of social housing In Mexico during the last decade has been supported by the different levels of government (federal, state, and municipal) in order to assist low-income families. The accelerated construction that takes place in order to address the housing deficit causes a reduction in the quality of design and construction, which is also affected by rising building costs. Environmental comfort conditions inside the dwellings are reduced drastically when houses are constructed without considering climate conditions, especially in hot arid regions. This situation generates uncomfortable thermal conditions for users and high-energy costs due to the unavoidable need of air conditioning. User profiles, architectural program, comfort preferences and guidelines for design and construction of future dwellings in the city of Hermosillo, in northwest Mexico, were determined by surveying beneficiaries of government affordable housing programs. One survey measured the degree of satisfaction of inhabitants in a sample of over 370 households; a second survey sampled 200 households and was aimed at determining aspects of comfort. This paper describes the results of thermal simulations carried out on two housing models. The first model represents the type usually constructed by commercial developers, and the second is a proposal developed by the research team according to guidelines based on the results of the research project described before. This study is a preliminary step in the construction of a physical model for experimental research and demonstration.Copyright

Thermal Analysis of Low-Cost Dwellings in Mexico Using Greenroofs

According to the National Energy Balance (1), the electricity consumption in the residential and commercial sector represents thirty-three percent of the total consumed in the country. Most of the energy is consumed during the summer, when it is necessary to use air conditioning to maintain comfort conditions inside buildings. This aspect takes relevance in warm-dry climates, where a deficient design of building envelope and a wrong location of windows can increase the thermal loads producing an extra load to air conditioning systems and high costs by electricity energy consumption. For this reason, adequate design strategies and thermodynamic concepts have to be applied in order to make dwellings comfortable. Two dwellings are simulated and analyzed, the first one is made of regional materials like traditional concrete block walls, reinforced concrete roofs and economic finishes, the second one is proposed with a green roof and insulation in walls. The heat gains through the different constructive elements have been obtained, to analyze their impact on global thermal comfort and the electricity energy consumption of air cooling systems. Also, an exergy analysis has been applied to analyze exergy efficiency of air cooling systems and the influence that the building envelope can have in them with the proposed changes. The minimum exergy expenditure of air conditioning systems required to achieve comfort conditions inside dwellings could be a useful benchmark for the comparison of various dwelling designs.Copyright

Effect of Daylighting Design on Thermal Comfort and on Energy Consumptions in Economical Dwellings

Daylighting design is an important strategy for energy efficiency in buildings, diminishing electricity consumptions. Prediction of indoor daylight levels is useful to choice the most suitable daylighting systems, which can be calculated assisted by simulation software. In this work, daylight has been studied in two economical dwellings located in Sonora, northwest Mexico, where sky is clean almost the whole year. One of them has been analyzed under its current conditions and in the other one, some improvements has been made. The simulation has been carried out with Power Doe. Daylight levels have been analyzed, pointing out their effects on thermal gains through the envelope and on electricity consumptions.Copyright