Conference Paper

Proceedings of BSO Conference 2016: Third Conference of IBPSA-England

Correlation Between Retrofitting Building Envelope And Thermal Improvement On Social Housing In Hot-Arid Climate

Ali Sedki, Neveen Hamza, Theo Zaffagnini

Abstract: This study examines the effectiveness of a combined strategy of retrofitting building envelope using an agricultural residue (maize) as an external insulation material and natural ventilation behaviours to improve indoor thermal comfort in a residential building. A prototype for a social housing multistorey building is selected in the hot arid climate of Cairo, Egypt. Building performance simulation using IES (the produced version of 2013) is used to predict the effectiveness of adding an external organic insulation material on the building envelope. Behaviours of natural ventilation are then included to predict a naturalistic approach for indoor thermal management. The simulation was conducted in a typical floor apartment that facing the warmest south orientation. Results revealed that -comparing to the base case - an improvement of 5.5% happened in winter period when applying external insulation only, while this percentage reduced to be 4.4% when applying the combined strategy. Further, this combined strategy was effective in summer period as it has improved indoor comfort by 58.3% while an improvement of 10.2% occurred when applying external insulation only. In addition, during springautumn period, the strategy was not effective as it made an improvement in indoor comfort by 6.0% from the base case and by 1.9% when applying external insulation only.
Pages: 498 - 505
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