Evaluation of Indoor Thermal Comfort Conditions of Residential Traditional and Modern Buildings in a Warm-Humid Climate

Abstract

Achieving optimal levels of indoor thermal comfort in a warm, humid climate continues to pose a challenge to building occupants in such climatic regions. Buildings are either being retrofitted or designed differently to cater to thermal comfort. As a result, a variety of tactics have been deployed to guarantee optimal thermal comfort for occupants. Some scholars have highlighted the salient contributions of various types of construction materials toward the delivery of different housing types which perform differently under a diverse range of climatic conditions. A plethora of studies suggesting better indoor thermal comfort performance of traditional buildings as compared to contemporary dwellings due to various reasons have been observed. However, limited studies have sought to investigate this suggestion within warm, humid climatic regions. As such, this study engages in an evaluation of indoor thermal comfort qualities of traditional and modern buildings during the dry season with the goal of developing design guidelines for a thermally pleasant environment in a town, Okigwe, which is situated in a warm, humid climatic region in Southeastern Nigeria. Data were collected utilizing a field measurement technique. Throughout the survey period, variables of the indoor environment such as relative humidity and air temperature were recorded concurrently in nine selected buildings, two traditional and seven modern buildings. The fluctuations and differences in relative humidity and air temperature between the two building types were investigated using Z-test statistical techniques. The study’s results revealed that the contemporary structures’ indoor air temperature (29.4 °C) was 0.6 °C higher than traditional buildings’ indoor air temperature (28.8 °C). Therefore, the study recommends that architects and planners should make concerted efforts to integrate methods of passive design into the provision of a comfortable indoor thermal environment rather than relying solely on active design strategies, which whilst lacking in traditional buildings, nonetheless did not prevent such buildings from recording lower air temperature readings compared to modern buildings.