The impact of climate adaptation measures on the thermal comfort of residential buildings in Pakistan

Abstract

Thermal comfort in residential buildings is being affected by climate change. The thermal discomfort causes the residents to take preventive measures which generally involve the use of so-called active air-conditioning measures. This can prove to be counterproductive as active measures cause the emission of greenhouse gases and increased energy demand which in turn exacerbates climate change. In this study based on building energy simulations, the effectiveness of various passive measures for adaptation to climate change is investigated by applying them to a typical house in Pakistan's humid subtropical climate region. The passive measures examined in the current study are (i) thermal resistance (ii) thermal mass (iii) natural ventilation (iv) albedo (v) vegetated roof (vi) solar shading. The evaluation of the effectiveness of passive measures is done by calculating overheating hours. Simulation results show that, in this climate region, window shading, increasing thermal mass, and vegetated roofs are the most effective measures that result in a decrease of up to 28%, 43%, and 31% from the base case, respectively. Overheating hours also significantly decrease from baseline with natural ventilation, increasing albedo, and lowering thermal resistance by 22%, 19%, and 7.5%.