Investigation of Thermal Comfort for A Naturally Ventilated House: Correlation between Climatic Design Strategy and Thermal Data Analysis

Abstract

One of the main factors contributing to climate change and global warming is architecture, which accounts for about 50% of the country's greenhouse emissions due to construction and the energy needed to keep buildings operational. Sustainable architecture is believed to reduce emissions, and this approach has been practised with traditional buildings. In Malaysia, a traditional Malay house (TMH) is one of the traditional buildings, and it is initially naturally ventilated with occupant-controlled air ventilation to condition the space. Numerous experimental studies claimed that TMH has demonstrated a good model for contemporary designers to understand climatic and environmental design, building systems, and design adaptability. One of the approaches is to practise climatic design strategies. However, there is a lack of study to determine if TMH is still relevant as a sustainable design that can adapt to current climate conditions. Thus, the study aims to investigate the adaptive indoor thermal comfort of a Negeri Sembilan Malay house in a hot-humid climate determined by the correlation between climatic design strategy and thermal data analysis. This study employed the Predictive Adaptive model by executing two stages of fieldwork: i) local climate background and ii) physical measurement (case study description and environmental data). The data were then analysed using the ACS of ASHRAE 55 and MS 2680:2017. The primary results revealed that 62% of the hourly indoor operative temperature of the case study house was within 80 to 90 % of the acceptability limit. The optimal comfort hourly indoor operative temperature was between 25.5 to 29.5 °C with a prevailing mean outdoor air temperature between 23 to 30 °C, which represents 90% of the acceptability limit range. Moreover, the results also complied with the standards of ACS, where the average hourly indoor operative temperature was less than 31 °C, with a prevailing mean outdoor air temperature less than 32 °C, which was an acceptable indoor state for occupants' comfort. The findings complied with RMK 12 Theme 3, which aims to be a carbon-neutral country by practising sustainable architecture and construction. The design of naturally ventilated houses, such as Negeri Sembilan Malay houses in hot-humid climates, can be a model reference for modern housing design development.