Thermally Comfortable Passive House for Tropical Uplands

Abstract

Thermally Comfortable Passive House for Tropical Uplands House presents special problems for design in relation to climate as it accommodates variety of uses over 24-hour period. It is widely known in the tropical countries that traditional houses are more sensitive to the prevailing climate and able to provide comfortable internal environment for the occupants. Tambi as one of traditional houses in upland Central Celebes Indonesia is believed to be thermally comfortable, yet there still no empirical evidence to approve it.

Present study conducted empirical studies on typical traditional Tambi houses to evaluate their thermal performance. External and internal climatic conditions were measured in each house and were analysed. Results of the study showed that typical traditional Tambi house are not able to maintain the internal temperature within the comfort range for a preiod of 24- hours. Thermal quality of the house, however, were improving as indicated by internal temperatures which were more satisfactory than the external temperatures.

Conclusion

Results of the field measurements indicated that thermal condition in Tambi traditional house could not suffice the 24-hour comfort requirement. As the study showed, the condition is closelly related to materials used in the buildings.Tambi house were conceived of lightweight materials with low thermal capacities, which as previous studies indicated was not recommeded for the tropical upland climate. It was stated that heavyweight structure with high thermal capacity will
perform better in this type of climate