Evaluation of Indoor Thermal Comfort Conditions of Residential Traditional and Modern Buildings in a Warm-Humid Climate

Abstract

Achieving optimal levels of indoor thermal comfort in a warm, humid climate continues to pose a challenge to building occupants in such climatic regions. Buildings are either being retrofitted or designed differently to cater to thermal comfort. As a result, a variety of tactics have been deployed to guarantee optimal thermal comfort for occupants. Some scholars have highlighted the salient contributions of various types of construction materials toward the delivery of different housing types which perform differently under a diverse range of climatic conditions. A plethora of studies suggesting better indoor thermal comfort performance of traditional buildings as compared to contemporary dwellings due to various reasons have been observed. However, limited studies have sought to investigate this suggestion within warm, humid climatic regions. As such, this study engages in an evaluation of indoor thermal comfort qualities of traditional and modern buildings during the dry season with the goal of developing design guidelines for a thermally pleasant environment in a town, Okigwe, which is situated in a warm, humid climatic region in Southeastern Nigeria. Data were collected utilizing a field measurement technique. Throughout the survey period, variables of the indoor environment such as relative humidity and air temperature were recorded concurrently in nine selected buildings, two traditional and seven modern buildings. The fluctuations and differences in relative humidity and air temperature between the two building types were investigated using Z-test statistical techniques. The study’s results revealed that the contemporary structures’ indoor air temperature (29.4 °C) was 0.6 °C higher than traditional buildings’ indoor air temperature (28.8 °C). Therefore, the study recommends that architects and planners should make concerted efforts to integrate methods of passive design into the provision of a comfortable indoor thermal environment rather than relying solely on active design strategies, which whilst lacking in traditional buildings, nonetheless did not prevent such buildings from recording lower air temperature readings compared to modern buildings.

Post Occupancy Evaluation of Ventilation Coefficient Desired for Thermal Comfort in Educational Facilities

“…From the analysis of Table 5, all studied classroom prototypes have a mean ventilation coefficient of 80%. Though the colonial classroom design maintained the lowest temperature values of 30.1ºC and this disagrees with the submission of Okafor [28], who opined that the indoor temperatures of traditional warm, humid buildings are 28.8ºC. Furthermore, with the colonial classroom building design having slightly higher relative humidity levels in comparison with the other classroom prototypes, the colonial building will feel cooler and more thermally conducive.…”

“…Their findings offered suggestions for corrective measures to enhance elements such as noise and illumination that did not meet the required standards but did not explore the ventilation parameters of tropical climates. Okafor et al [28] provided insight on the indoor thermal comfort values of warm, humid tropics, although it was a comparative evaluation of the internal thermal comfort characteristics of traditional and contemporary Nigerian buildings.…”

Adaptive Strategies Used in Urban Houses to Overheating: A Systematic Review

“…Previously published research demonstrates that efforts to prevent overheating and preserve thermal comfort in buildings have included adaptive techniques (Charles, 2022;Nazarian et al, 2022;Okafor et al, 2022;Gamero-Salinas et al, 2021;Chen, 2019;Wang, Ji, & Ren, 2017). Evidence from the literature review shows that adaptation strategies are ways to respond to uncomfortable situations of extreme heat in order to achieve thermal satisfaction (Nazarian et al, 2022;Folkerts et al, 2020;Fosas et al, 2018).…”

Sustainable Vernacular Architecture: The Renovation of a Traditional House on Stara Planina Mountain in Serbia

“…It follows from this that it is really important to find a method to reduce the high need for energy in the construction business [4] so that construction would have a less negative impact on the environment [5]. In this regard, a significant number of scientific studies are dedicated to the topics of reducing the ecological and economic footprint [6][7][8][9][10][11], bioclimatic strategy in architecture [12] and sustainable development of the traditional house [3,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”