Optimizing the indoor thermal behaviour of housing units in hot humid climates: Analysis and modelling of sustainable constructive alternatives

Indoor housing temperatures in tropical climates exceed values associated with thermal comfort, whenever mechanical climate-control systems usually are not allowed due electrical restrictions especially in poor areas where infrastructures are inadequate to maintain a standard of living. This study aims to address thermally efficient and sustainable constructive alternatives in such severe climates. It shows how single-family residential building can achieve comfort conditions, through low-energy consumption. Different alternatives were modelled through DesignBuilder (powered by EnergyPlus), analysing options for roofs and facades solutions for comparison with a reference model for the warmer week of the year. The finding identified the most suitable orientation, and verified the influence of key aspects, such as roof-slab shading and a combination of both fa？ade and roofing strategies. The study compared alternatives tested for different roof systems to establish the comfort hours, showing an increase of 17.86% with solely the roof system, while actions taken exclusively on fa？ades increased the comfort hours by up to 6.55%. Finally, the combined performance of the best roof and facade options showed improvements of up to 92.86% in terms of comfort hours, with an economic impact of 4.8% needed for the practical implementation of the best alternative