Passive cooling strategies as a method to reduce energy consumption of future dwelling projects in Panama City

• Main Authors: Maria Alejandra Del Rio Denis, 羅莉涵
• Other Authors: Jiunn-Chi Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/w4gze6

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 國際永續發展碩士在職專班 === 102 === This thesis aimed to propose an effective method to reduce energy consumption related to thermal comfort in residences located in the tropical climate of Panama City. A two-stage framework was adopted in this research. First, a case study was conducted during 6 months; where a humidity-temperature data logger was placed inside an existing house in Panama City to record its indoor conditions. Then, a prototype of house was designed with passive cooling strategies for improving thermal performance. This proposed prototype was further simulated using Ecotect software, where four different natural ventilation techniques for heat dissipation were adopted; namely, no ventilation, full ventilation, day ventilation and night ventilation. Both the existent house and the proposed prototype were evaluated using two ASHRAE-55 thermal comfort standards for naturally ventilated buildings, namely, adaptive comfort standard (ACS) and a predicted mean vote (PMV) regression to use thermal sensation scale. Results shown that among all of the natural ventilation strategies implemented, full ventilation showed the best performances as it was the one to achieve the best thermal comfort. The two major findings of the study are: (1) to fully achieve passive cooling it is necessary to combine heat gain control and heat dissipation techniques, and (2) the implementation of passive cooling strategies can reduce the energy consumption and achieve thermal comfort in future dwellings in Panama City.