Design factors influence on electrical consumption for artificial cooling: a case study in a social housing under humid tropical climate

Abstract

In Brazil, similarly to what happens in the world, the energy consumption of homes corresponds to approximately 25% of the energy demanded. The continuous growth of the housing deficit together with the increase in discomfort caused by climate change and heat island phenomena tend to generate increased consumption related to the use of air conditioning to meet this growing energy demand. In view of this, the objective of this research was to quantify the energy consumption of popular housing in the humid tropical climate, in which the use of air conditioning is present. Data on electrical consumption of a reference housing complex in Rio de Janeiro were collected through an on-site visit and subsequently analyzed statically in order to enable model calibration. The results allowed analyzing the influence of the month, floor, direction and location in the block in contrast with the electrical consumption of the apartments. It was concluded that the floor and the block were not significant, the west direction was the most critical, and in the summer months the consumption of electricity for cooling increased. In this way, the post-occupancy assessment can generate reference data that allow diagnosing residential energy consumption. As a contribution, the result generated enables the development of research to improve the energy efficiency of low-income housing. It is therefore possible to evaluate the increase in energy consumption in future scenarios, considering climate change, to define applicable constructive strategies allowing to adapt the building constructed to the climate in question or even to generate solutions that allow optimizing the energy performance of similar buildings.