Enhancing Sustainability in Building Design: Hybrid Approaches for Evaluating the Impact of Building Orientation on Thermal Comfort in Semi-Arid Climates

Abstract

The evaluation of human thermal comfort inside buildings plays a pivotal role in reducing energy consumption and enhancing sustainability in the built environment. The estimation of thermal comfort is based on objective (physical factors) and subjective (psychological factors) aspects. This study aimed to find a hybrid way to evaluate more accurate thermal comfort in the buildings as per their orientations. This study assessed the effect of building orientation on thermal comfort conditions in row houses in semi-arid climates, based on a synthesis of the predictive mean vote (PMV) model and the thermal sensation vote (TSV). For this purpose, row houses were selected in the region of this study. This study concluded that the PMV model calculates a lower thermal comfort level than the TSV method, and that the thermal comfort demand within the houses was higher than ASHRAE Standard 55. The occupants inside the houses had a lower thermal tolerance. This implied that the residents of these buildings can consume more energy during the summer, typically the harshest season. This study presented new mathematical models for occupants’ thermal comfort evaluation in the study region, depending on the building’s orientation. In both models, for assessing thermal performance during both the summer and winter seasons, east-facing buildings consistently ranked as the second-best orientation. This suggested that, overall, east-facing buildings can be considered the best choice throughout the entire year in terms of thermal comfort. This study suggested a novel indicator to evaluate the optimum building orientation in the study area in terms of thermal performance.