Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean: Comfort and the Balance between Passive and Active Design

Abstract

This article contains an overall analysis of the results obtained by the four highest scoring teams in the Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean 2015 collegiate sustainable habitat competition. Considering that the prototypes developed were based on energy self-sufficiency when operational, it was considered necessary to propose this analysis based on the degree of suitability of each of these models based on their different performances from the perspective of comfort conditions. It was observed that the design of the prototypes did not manage to properly adjust the relationship between passive and active conditioning elements based on the location’s conditions. Accordingly, this article concludes that a balance of the two aforementioned conditioning modes recorded better results based on the measurements taken.