Assessment of Passive Thermal Performance for a Penang Heritage Shop house

AbstractIn recent years, Malaysia has seen an increase in energy consumption by buildings from all sectors. A significant portion of the energy consumed annually is spent to cool residential and commercial buildings. However, there is possibility that the country's overall energy usage may be reduced, provided that steps are taken to minimize cooling loads in buildings via passive means. Considering Malaysia to be a country of hot-humid climate, many modern building designs have been observed to ignore the general characteristics of the region's vernacular architecture. These are the key elements which help to reduce solar heat gains during the day. Properly conserved heritage buildings however, are seen to possess some of these qualities which may allow them to remain cooler than their modern counterparts under similar conditions. This paper discusses the thermal performance of a heritage shop house in Penang, Malaysia, which uses passive cooling. Aspects which are looked at are the overall design of the buildings as well as recorded thermal data collected during a pilot study. The results show that the building provided an indoor environment that is cooler than the outside. Suggestions are also made to further improve the indoor thermal environmen

WALL DESIGN FOR BORROWED DAYLIGHT IN ENCLOSED CORRIDORS

Previous studies by same authors, % DF values were calibrated comparing field work data to Radiance simulations and scaled model study for an enclosed corridor in tropical climate. Corridor walls are usually opaque resulting in very dark situations relying solely on artificial lighting. The objectives of this study in Paper 2 are to further investigate the extent of daylight which can be borrowed to light the internal enclosed corridors. This is carried out by experimenting on the various types of corridor wall designs with added transparent or glazed areas for daylight to be borrowed to the enclosed corridors. The designs experimented with various horizontal and vertical alternatives. The effects of these new corridor wall designs to daylight distribution in corridors are investigated by Radiance simulations. Results are compared to base case which is a situation of all opaque walls for the corridors as the worst situation. The findings show that the newer designs of corridor walls can provide daylight to corridors with significant improvements. Even though the %DF found were very low, outdoor illuminance in tropics are high therefore it is still sufficient for corridor lighting. Corridors with 50% glazed areas in a 4 strips horizontal design was found to perform the best for allowing borrowed daylight to occur

A METHOD TO CALIBRATE PERCENTAGE DAYLIGHT FACTOR AT ENCLOSED INTERNAL CORRIDOR USING SCALED MODEL AND SIMULATION

Enclosed corridors are long and they usually have no window provisions and require electric lighting to be switched on for 24 hours continuously to operate. Some corridor designs have openings for daylight at the ends, while others supplement daylight at the middle. The most part of these corridors are dark and consuming a lot of nonrenewable energy from artificial light. This paper explores how enclosed internal corridors do get the benefits of daylight depending on the corridor designs. It explores how percentage DF (Daylight Factor) less than 1%, especially in Malaysia where the skies are bright, can be beneficial and useful. The illumination required for corridors are minimal according to standards. Field work measurements were taken in selected enclosed corridor of a hostel building on typical overcast days and readings on %DF were then recorded. A scaled model of similar design was built to be experimented in the artificial sky to get a same set of readings; followed by simulation using Radiance. Results show that the readings calibrate well between field work compared to the scaled model in artificial sky and simulation with less than 10% differences. It was found that values of %DF of 0.5 and below calibrated well. Comparison were also carried out in terms of absolute illuminance and it was found that daylight illuminance less than 40 lux in corridors should not be underestimatedand were still useful even though lower than the usual standards for corridor illumination. This successful calibration will be used for further experimentation how enclosed corridors can be naturally lit by simulations