Passive Cooling Strategies for Improved Thermal Performance of Residential Buildings in Hot-Humid Climates

Residential buildings are characterized by being envelope-load dominated buildings, hence are greatly influenced by the outside climatic conditions. Due to the harsh climate of Saudi Arabia, residential buildings on average, consume more than half of the total consumed energy. The bulk of this energy is consumed by the air-conditioning system which is required to remove substantial amount of gained heat throughout the year due to poor thermal performance. Implementing proper passive strategies including ventilation strategies and different envelope designs can significantly improve the thermal performance of residential buildings in transition as well as in winter months. The objectives of this paper are to evaluate different ventilation strategies with various envelope designs to improve the thermal performance of residential buildings in hot humid climate of Saudi Arabia. Under the hot-humid climatic conditions of Dhahran, a base case residential building was simulated utilizing the energy simulation program: VisualDOE 4.1 when the air-conditioning is off in transition months (March, April, May, October and November) and in winter months (December, January and February). Different ventilation strategies coupled with various envelope designs were investigated. It is found that when proper ventilation strategies are implemented for different envelope designs, thermal performance is significantly improved. The results of this study can be used to develop smart ventilators or improved AC systems with economizer for residential buildings to improve thermal comfort in transition and winter months without using the traditional air conditioners.