Effectiveness of energy-saving renovation techniques through passive cooling for urban houses in hot-humid climate of Malaysia

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of energy-saving renovation techniques through passive cooling for urban houses in hot-humid climate of Malaysia. Effects of two strategies, i.e. complete natural ventilation (NV) strategy and partial air conditioning (AC) strategy, were simulated using TRNSYS. The results revealed that indoor thermal comfort was achieved in the complete NV strategy by applying multiple passive cooling techniques that prevented external heat on the outer building envelope and night ventilation, even under heated urban climatic conditions. In the partial AC strategy, reductions of about 45% in the sensible cooling load and about 30% in the latent cooling load compared to the current condition were obtained by insulating inner surfaces of the master bedroom while applying several passive cooling techniques to the other spaces.