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Building and Environment 42 (2007) 13951405 www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv

A study of the effectiveness of passive climate control in naturally ventilated residential buildings in Singapore
N.H. Wong, S. Li
Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore 117566, Singapore Received 26 October 2005; received in revised form 18 November 2005; accepted 24 November 2005

Abstract Singapore has the hot and humid climate throughout the year. Many passive climate control methods are adopted in the naturally ventilated residential buildings to help achieve thermal comfort and reduce the energy consumption of air-conditioning. A eld measurement and computational energy simulations were conducted to examine the effectiveness of commonly used passive climate control methods for these buildings. The effect of building orientation, fac - ade construction, special roof system and window shading device on indoor thermal environment and cooling load was studied. The surface temperature of external wall and indoor thermal environment was measured to analyze the fac - ade thermal performance. The cooling load was simulated to evaluate the effectiveness of various passive climate methods. Using the special roof system as thermal buffer is the most efcient method to reduce the room cooling load. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Passive climate control; Residential building; Singapore

1. Introduction Singapore is a tropical country that lies on 11200 N latitude and 1041E longitude. It possesses a climate with uniformly high temperatures, high humidity and abundant rainfall throughout the year. The housing development board (HDB) of Singapore has built large number of residential buildings for Singaporeans and about 84% of the population lives in it. Most HDB buildings rely on a combination of cross ventilation and mechanical ventilation by fans to achieve thermal comfort. However, the climate condition of Singapore might have negative impact on the comfort of the occupants. As Singapore becomes more afuent, the living standard has increased over the years. To improve the thermal environment, more and more occupants install the air conditioners for their HDB ats. In 1988, 19% of households in Singapore owned air-conditioners. Ten years later in 1998, the gure shot up to 58%. The most obvious side effect is the dramatic rise of the energy consumption in domestic sector. In Singapore, the energy consumption has
Corresponding author. Tel.: +65 6874 3423; fax: +65 6775 5502.

increased almost 100% from 950.8 KWh/resident in 1991 to 1803 KWh/resident in 2001 [1]. Passive climate control is the concept completely in line with the notion of sustainable building. It is an alternative to a mechanical air-conditioning system and as such is an essential part of sustainable building. Passive climate control implies that the repository is built and arranged in such a way that the thermal and hygroscopic properties of the building and its contents create a good stable indoor climate [2]. The main points to take into consideration when designing a climate responsive building are

     

minimize heat gain during daytime and maximize heat loss at night in hot seasons, and reverse cold seasons, minimize internal heat gain in the hot seasons, select the site according to microclimatic criteria, optimize the building structure (especially regarding thermal storage and time lag), control solar radiation, regulate air circulation.

E-mail address: bdgwnh@nus.edu.sg (N.H. Wong). 0360-1323/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.11.032

Indeed, along with the improvement of the HDB building design, many concepts of the passive climate control were

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applied in the real HDB buildings and achieved good results. A eld survey was conducted to evaluate thermal comfort perception of the occupants in naturally ventilated public housing in Singapore. The relatively high percentage acceptability (i.e. 82.6%) suggests that the occupants are generally satised with their thermal environment [3]. In this study, eld measurement and energy simulations were utilized to explore the effectiveness of passive climate control in the HDB building. 2. Methodology 2.1. Overview The eld measurement was conducted in a typical HDB building. Three commonly used passive climate control methods in HDB building design were examined. They are:

  

select the site according to microclimatic criteria, minimize heat gain by utilizing special roof system as the thermal buffer, optimize the building fac - ade construction and materials.

Six residential units of the building at different levels were selected for the measurement. The surface temperature of building fac - ade, indoor and outdoor weather condition were measured and recorded continually. An energy simulation program called thermal analysis software (TAS) was utilized to simulate the passive climate control methods. 2.2. Description of the building and the selected units The building is 14 storeys in height and orientated at 15 degrees to the true north (as shown in Fig. 1). The selected units, A, B, C, D, E and F are located at the east and west end of the building at 4th, 7th and 14th oors (as shown in Fig. 2). To reduce the heat from east and west solar radiation, the construction of the east and west end walls (Type A) is different from the construction of south and north external walls (Type B). The thickness of Type A is double as that of Type B. The U-value of Type A and Type B is 0.8 and 1.5 W/m2K, respectively. The detail of the wall constructions is shown in Fig. 3. Since the solar radiation is very strong in Singapore, most HDB buildings adopt a special roof construction called secondary roof system as the roof thermal buffer. The secondary roof slabs consist of precast square or rectangular-shaped concrete slabs supported by concrete solid blocks. The support stools may be of uniform height, or variable height for added ventilation. All gaps at the edges of the secondary slab layer are sealed with galvanized wire mesh bent into shape to prevent birds and foreign objects from entering. A thermal insulation effect is thus achieved by blocking direct sunlight with the top slab and by the air ow between the concrete roof and slab.

Fig. 1. HDB residential building.

The construction of the secondary roof system is shown in Fig. 4. 2.3. Description of the eld measurement process The eld measurement was taken from the end of July to the beginning of August which is the hottest period in Singapore. The eld measurement was divided into two periods. In the rst period, unit A, C and E, the east end units were measured. Unit B, D and F, the west end units were measured in the second period. During the measurement period, the outdoor environment parameters including ambient temperature and solar radiation intensity were recorded by HOBO weather station (as shown in Fig. 5). The indoor environment including ambient temperature, globe temperature and relative humidity in unit A, B, E and F is monitored by BABUC weather station (as shown in Fig. 6). Since the four units are located at low and high level and east and west end, respectively, the effect of building orientation and building height on indoor thermal environment can be studied by comparing the results of the indoor environment measurement. To study the effect of building fac - ade construction and roof thermal buffer, internal and external wall surface temperature and surface temperature of each layer in secondary roof system were measured by thermal couple

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N.H. Wong, S. Li / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 13951405 1397

Fig. 2. Floor plan and the location of the selected units.

5mm ceramic tile Internal External 3mm cement 229mm concrete hollow block 13mm cement plaster Type A U-value=0.8 W/m2K

2mm paint Internal External 114mm concrete hollow block 13 mm cement plaster Type B U-value=1.5 W/m2K
Fig. 3. External wall construction.

Fig. 4. Secondary roof system construction.

wires combined with Yokogowa-DAQ STATION-DX230 data logger (as shown in Fig. 7). The surface temperature measurement points locations are shown in Fig. 8. 2.4. Computational simulations TAS is a suite of software products, which simulates the dynamic thermal performance of buildings and their

Fig. 5. HOBO weather station.

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systems [4]. The program has the unique capability of accurately modeling non-conventional, energy efcient and creative design solutions [5]. In this study, the energy simulation program was utilized to examine the effectiveness of the passive climate control methods which were adopted in HDB residential building from the energy consumption aspect. The simulation model was built in TAS based on the form, orientation, spatial layout, architectural features, nishes and construction

material of the building in which the eld measurement was conducted (as shown in Fig. 9). The cooling load of the living room in each of the 6 selected units (AF) was simulated. The location of the living room in the units is shown in Fig. 10. In the living room, the window to external wall ration is 0.2. The internal room temperature was set to 24 1C. Since the internal heat gain was set as zero in the simulations, the cooling load is purely from the building fac - ade.

Fig. 6. BUBUC weather station.

Fig. 9. Residential building model in TAS.

Fig. 7. Thermal couple wire and Yokogawa data logger.

Fig. 8. Locations of the surface temperature measurement point.

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Fig. 10. Living room location.

Table 1 Description of simulation base case and 4 variations Living room orientation Base case Variation A Variation B Variation C West&East North&South West&East West&East Construction of external wall Roof construction Window shading device

Variation D

West&East

Type B Type B Type B West&East external wall with Type A, North&South external wall with Type B ( as shown in Fig. 3) Type B

Secondary roof system Secondary roof system Without secondary roof system Secondary roof system

No No No No

Secondary roof system

With 0.3 m, 0.6 m, 0.9 m horizontal window shading device, respectively

There are four variations in the simulation. The detail of the variations is described in Table 1. 3. Results and analysis The outdoor weather condition during the two measurement periods is shown in Fig. 11. 3.1. Effectiveness of selecting the site according to microclimatic criteria Since Singapore is situated at the equator, the solar radiation is very strong at east and west orientation. To avoid gaining much heat through the external walls from the solar radiation, it is essential that the elongated building fac - ade should face south or north. The measurement results of the fac - ade surface temperature and indoor thermal environment in the 6 selected units show the effect of the building orientation. The internal and external wall surface temperatures of the 6 selected units are shown in Figs. 12 and 13. It is observed that except unit E, in all units, both external and internal, the surface temperatures of west and east external wall are higher than that of the south wall. In the Base Case energy simulation, although the building is facing north, the elongated external wall of the living room is facing east and west. In the Variation A, the orientation of the building is changed and the living rooms elongated external wall faces north and south. The simulation results of the Base Case and Variation A are
Solar radiation (W/m2)

Solar radiation 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

Ambient temperature 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 Ambient temperature (C)

0:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 0:00 Time 1st measurement period weather condition 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 Ambient temperature (C) Solar radiation Ambient temperature Solar radiation (W/m2) 0:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 0:00 Time 2
nd

measurement period weather condition

Fig. 11. Weather condition.

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1400
34 Unit A

N.H. Wong, S. Li / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 13951405

34 Unit C Temperature (C) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 32

Temperature (C)

32

30

30

28

28

26 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature East internal South internal East external South external

26 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature East internal South internal East external South external

36 34 Temperature (C) 32 30 28 26

Unit E

Fig. 12. External wall surface temperature of the east end units.

listed in Table 2. When the elongated external wall of the living room was switched from east to north, the cooling load can be reduced by 11.0511.54%. Also, 8.578.67% energy was saved after the orientation of living room was changed from west to south. Besides the orientation, the building height also affects the fac - ade thermal performance and indoor thermal environment. Figs. 14 and 15 show the comparison of east and west external wall surface temperature among different oors. It is found that among the low, middle and highest oor, for east and west orientations, the highest external and internal surface temperature was found in the middle oor units. The highest oor has the lowest external and internal surface temperature and the low oor temperature was in the middle between highest and middle oor. The higher wind speed on the highest oor was considered as the reason for the above ndings. However, on the middle oors, the intensity of solar radiation was similar with that of the highest oor, and the wind speed was lower than that in the highest oor. Thus, it was reasonable for the middle oor to have higher surface temperature. For the lower oor, the shading from surrounding trees and buildings reduced the intensity of solar radiation, so even when the

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature East internal South internal East external South external

wind speed was low, the surface temperature was not as high as that of the middle oor. Indoor thermal environment in the 4 selected units (A, B, E, and F) is shown in Figs. 1619 and the peak value of indoor ambient temperature and indoor mean radiant temperature are listed in Table 3. It is observed that in both east and west side, the indoor mean radiant temperature is higher in high oor units other than in low oor units since there is no shading for the high oor. Although the mean radiant temperature is high, the indoor ambient temperature is low in the high oor units due to the higher wind speed. 3.2. Effectiveness of minimizing heat gain by the utilization of roof thermal buffer The effectiveness of the roof thermal buffer can be clearly observed from Fig. 20 and Table 4. The efciency of the secondary roof system is very high in improving roof thermal performance. With this roof system, from the exposed roof surface to indoor ceiling, the temperature was reduced by 25 1C. The decrement factor of roof is 0.57. Although the time lag is quite long due to the special roof

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38 36 36 Temperature (C) Temperature (C) 34 32 30 28 26 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature West internal South internal West external South external

1401

Unit B

38

Unit D

34 32 30 28 26 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature West internal South internal West external South external

38 36 Temperature (C) 34 32 30 28 26

Unit F

Fig. 13. External wall surface temperature of west end units.

Table 2 Energy simulation results of base case and variation A Units A (Low oor) C (Middle oor) E (Highest oor) B (Low oor) D (Middle oor) F (Highest oor)

Base case

External wall faces east 12.73 12.73 External wall faces south 11.26 11.54 11.26 11.54 14.78

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature West internal South internal West external South external

External wall faces west 13.11 13.11 External wall faces north 11.99 8.57 11.99 8.57 15.19

Variation A

Energy saving (%)

13.14 11.05

13.88 8.67

construction, the heat radiation from ceiling will not affect the occupants much since the peak ceiling surface temperature occurred at 17:45. Also, from the indoor thermal environment measurement results shown in Figs. 1719, it is found that comparing with the mean radiant temperature in the low oor units, it is just slightly higher in the highest oor units. Table 5 shows the simulated living room cooling load in base case and Variation B. It is found that the secondary roof system is very useful on the energy saving. Comparing with the common roof construction, 11.5511.59% energy

could be saved with the adoption of the secondary roof system as the thermal buffer. 3.3. Effectiveness of optimizing the building fac - ade construction and materials It is known that the solar radiation is strong in the east and west orientation. To reduce the heat gain from building facade, the external wall construction of east and west end wall is thicker than that of south and north wall. Table 6 show the thermal performance of the two

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Unit E

33.00 32.00

East units (A, C,E)

32 31 Temperature (C) 30 29 28 27 26

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 RH (%)
RH (%) RH (%)

Temperarture (C)

31.00 30.00 29.00 28.00 27.00 26.00 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Time

Outdoor Ambient Temperature Unit A (4th floor) internal surface temperature Unit C (7th floor) internal surface temperature Unit E (14th floor) internal surface temperature Unit A (4th floor) external surface temperature Unit C (7th floor) external surface temperature Unit E (14th floor) external surface temperature

33 32 Temperature (C) 31 30

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Time
Indoor ambient temperature Outdoor air temperature Indoor mean radiant temperature Relative Humidity

Fig. 17. Internal thermal environment of unit E.

Unit B

72 70 68 66 64

Fig. 14. Comparison of east external wall surface temperature among different oors.

37.00 36.00 35.00 Temperature (C) 34.00 33.00 32.00 31.00 30.00 29.00 28.00 27.00

West units (B, D, F)

29 28 27 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Time Indoor ambient temperature Outdoor air temperature Indoor mean radiant temperature Relative Humidity

62 60 58

Fig. 18. Internal thermal environment of unit B.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Time
Outdoor AmbientTemperature Unit B (4th floor) internal surface temperature Unit D (8th floor) internal surface temperature Unit F (14th floor) internal surface temperature Unit B (4th floor) external surface temperature Unit D (8th floor) external surface temperature Unit F (14th floor) external surface temperature

33 32 Temperature (C) 31 30 29 28

Unit F

76 74 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58

Fig. 15. Comparison of west external wall surface temperature among different oors.

32 31 Temperature (C) 30 29 28 27 26

Unit A

80 70 60 RH (%) 50 40 30 20 10 0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Time
Indoor ambient temperature Oudoor air temperature Indoor mean radiant temperature Relative humidity

Fig. 16. Internal thermal environment of unit A.

types of external wall construction. The decrement factor of east and west wall is much lower than that of the south walls. This indicates that with the thick construction, the heat gain from the west and east walls are reduced. The time lag of the external wall is between 60 and 140 min. The

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Time
Indoor ambient temperature Outdoor air temperature Indoor mean radiant temperature Relative Humidity

27

56

Fig. 19. Internal thermal environment of unit F.

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latest internal peak surface temperature occurrence time is 17:30 and it occurred at the west external wall of unit F. Hence, the heat radiation from fac - ade internal surface will not affect the occupants when they rest in the evening and night. It is also observed that the time lag of east and west external wall is longer than that of south external wall. The simulation results listed in Table 7 proves the effectiveness of the optimizing the building fac - ade construction and materials from the energy aspect. When the elongated external wall construction of the living room was changed from type B to type A (the U-value was changed from 1.5 to 0.8 W/m2K), 6.919.69% energy could be saved. 3.4. Effectiveness of window shading device It is hard to measure the effect of the different window shading device on the indoor thermal comfort from the
Table 3 Peak value of indoor ambient temperature and indoor mean radiant temperature in 6 selected units Unit Peak indoor mean radiant temperature (1C) Peak indoor ambient temperature (1C) 29 28.8 29.6 29.6

eld measurement. Therefore, the work relies on the simulations entirely. Table 8 shows the cooling load of living room in base case and Variation D. 2.623.24% energy can be saved by applying simple 0.3 m depth horizontal shading device to the living room window. More cooling load is reduced while the depth of shading device is lengthened. When the depth of the window shading device is 0.6 m, 5.857.06% energy could be saved. Also, when the depth of the shading reaches 0.9 m, cooling load of living room is reduced 8.2710.13%.

4. Conclusions A eld measurement and a series of energy simulation were conducted in this study to examine the effectiveness of commonly used passive climate control method in the residential building in Singapore. The key ndings from this study are as follow:

  

A(east, 4th oor) E (east 14th oor) B (west 4th oor) F (west 14th oor)

29.2 29.3 30.0 30.9

64.00

Roof

Temperature (C)

54.00

44.00 34.00

In Singapore, the best orientation of the building is north/south. The cooling load can be reduced 8.5711.54% by simply changing the building orientation from east/west to north/south. From the eld measurement, it is found the highest surface temperature of external wall is occurred at middle oor instead of high oor. The thermal performance of the special secondary roof system is outstanding. It helps to reduce11.59% cooling load. By using thicker construction on east and west external can reduce the solar radiation heat gain. The cooling load could be reduced by 6.919.67% when the thickness of external wall is doubled. Window shading device is helpful to reduce the cooling load and save the energy. By adopting 0.30.9m horizontal shading device, 2.6210.13% cooling load could be saved.

Table 5 Energy simulation results of base case and variation B

24.00 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Time
Outdoor Ambient Temperature covered roof temperature exposed roof temperature ceiling temperature

Units

E (Highestoor) East end unit 14.78 16.71 11.59

F (Highestoor) West end unit 15.19 17.18 11.55

Fig. 20. Surface temperature of the secondary roof system.

Base case Variation B Energy saving (%)

Table 4 Thermal performance of the secondary roof system Roof Peak temperature (1C) 58.9 37.6 33.7 DT (1C) Decrement factor 0.57 Occurrence time of peak temperature 13:55 15:35 17:45 Time lag

Exposed roof Covered roof Ceiling

25.2

3 h 50 min

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1404 N.H. Wong, S. Li / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 13951405 Table 6 Thermal performance of two types of the external wall Peak temperature (1C) Unit A (east, low oor) East external 32.3 East internal 31 South external 31.5 South internal 30.9 Unit B (west low oor) West external 37.6 West internal 32.7 South external 32.2 South internal 31.4 Unit C (east middle East external East internal South external South internal Unit D (west middle West external West internal South external South internal oor) 32.7 31.2 32.3 31.1 oor) 37.8 33.0 32.5 31.5 DT (1C) Decrement factor Occurrence time of peak temperature Time lag (min)

1.3 0.6

0.96 0.98

14:45 17:05 15:05 16:40 15:45 17:20 15:30 16:35 14:45 17:10 14:45 16:05 15:45 17:20 15:30 16:40 15:00 16:50 15:00 16:05 15:40 17:30 15:30 16:30

140 95

4.9 0.8

0.86 0.98

95 65

1.5 1.2

0.95 0.96

145 140

4.8 1.0

0.87 0.97

95 70

Unit E (east high oor) East external 32.5 East internal 31.1 South external 33.8 South internal 32.7 Unit F (west high oor) West external 36.6 West internal 32.9 South external 32.9 South internal 32.2

1.4 1.1

0.96 0.97

110 65

3.7 0.7

0.90 0.98

110 60

Table 7 Energy simulation results of base case and variation C Units East end unit A (Low oor) Base case Variation C Energy saving (%) 12.73 11.64 8.57 C (Middle oor) 12.73 11.64 8.57 E (Highest oor) 14.78 13.75 6.91 West end unit B (Low oor) 13.11 11.85 9.67 D (Middle oor) 13.11 11.85 9.67 F (Highest oor) 15.19 13.99 7.93

Table 8 nergy simulation results of base case and Variation D Units East end unit A (Low oor) Base case Variation D (0.3 m horizontal shading) Energy saving (%) VD (0.6 m horizontal shading) Energy saving (%) VD (0.9 m horizontal shading) Energy saving (%) 12.73 12.32 3.24 11.83 7.06 11.44 10.13 C (Middle oor) 12.73 12.32 3.24 11.83 7.06 11.44 10.13 E (Highest oor) 14.78 14.36 2.84 13.86 6.18% 13.46 8.88 West end unit B (Low oor) 13.11 12.72 2.98 12.24 6.65 11.88 9.39 D (Middle oor) 13.11 12.72 2.98 12.24 6.65 11.88 9.39 F (Highest oor) 15.19 14.79 2.62 14.3 5.85% 13.94 8.27

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References
[1] Public Utilities Board of Singapore. Electricity Efciency Awareness. 2002. http://www.pub.gov.sg/conservation.htm. [2] Teygeler R, Bruin G, Wassink B, Zanen B. Preservation of archives in tropical climates. 2001. http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/grip/tropical.html [3] Wong NH, Feriadi H, Lim PY, Tham KW, Sekhar C, Cheong KW. Thermal comfort evaluation of naturally ventilated public housing in Singapore. Building and Environment 2002;37:126777.

[4] Environmental Design Solutions Limited. Introduction of Thermal Analysis Software. http://www.edsl.net/ [5] Lee YP, Leed AP. Sustainable solution to building mechanical systemsimulation of thermo-active slab with thermal mass using TAS. Proceedings of the Canadian conference on building energy simulation. Vancouver (Canada), 2004. http://www.esim.ca/2004/ documents/proceedings/PA106FINAL.pdf