The traditional houses are well adapted to the climate and socio-culture using local building materials and techniques. However, traditional practices are being replaced by the artificial materials, modern design and new technology. It requires strong policies to sustain the traditional architecture. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the thermal condition of traditional houses and to estimate the comfort temperature of residents. The thermal comfort survey was conducted during winter in the traditional houses. The thermal sensation votes were collected from 275 people in cold, temperate and sub-tropical climatic regions. This study was revealed that the mean indoor air temperature in cold climatic region is 12.3°C, which was 9.5K and 4.4K lower than sub-tropical and temperate climates. The comfort temperature of the residents in the cold climate was 13.9°C, which was 8.8K and 3.8K lower than sub-tropical and temperate climates. The mean clothing insulation in cold climate was 1.63 clo which was 0.48 clo and 0.31 clo higher than sub-tropical and temperate climates. It concludes that the people were well adapted to each climate with clothing adjustments and made themselves satisfied with the thermal condition of their houses.
Nepal has sub-tropical to cold regions due to large altitude difference. The traditional houses are well adapted to the local climate with the use of local building materials. However, traditional practice has been diminished by more introduction of the artificial building materials, modern design and new technology. Under this circumstance, some strong policies based on a field research to sustain the traditional architecture with some rational modern metamorphosis is necessary. For this reason, we investigated the wintry indoor thermal environment of traditional houses in three climatic regions of Nepal. We measured the indoor thermal environment all together nine houses in cold, temperate and sub-tropical regions during the winter in December 2016. The houses were found to be eighty percent of the time below 11°C, 16°C and 22°C in cold, temperate and sub-tropical regions, respectively. This result is well attributed to the regional climatic difference and the thermal characteristics of building materials used. The traditional houses surveyed are considered to be adapted to the climates because of the local availability of building materials.
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