5TH International Congress on Technology - Engineering & Science - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia (2018-02-01)

Solar Passive Architecture

Passive solar design refers to the use of the suns energy for the heating and cooling of living spaces. In this approach, the building itself or some element of it takes advantage of natural energy characteristics in materials and air created by exposure to the sun. Passive design is design that takes advantage of the climate to maintain a comfortable temperature range in the home. Passive design reduces or eliminates the need for auxiliary heating or cooling, which accounts for about 40%. This is also one of the most cost-efficient system. It provides a thermal comfort for the inhabitants, both heating effect and cooling effect. The building distributes solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and rejects or converts the solar energy in the summer. The conversion is possible either by Solar Panels or Adsorption Cooling System. Moreover, this paper discusses about the history of Passive design and its development till the present conditions and to implement this design in a warm climatic region as this is mostly practiced in the cold countries. Also, this article speaks about the placement and orientation of the houses in ancient Greece and how it responded to the climatic conditions. The primary objective is to create a prototype (either building or a material) which adapts the local climatic condition and the sun path. They achieved this by the orientation and placement of houses so that the houses were warmer during the winters. Moreover, the heat can be used for cooling the spaces by the process of Adsorption Chilling. So, the objective is to incorporate the passive design in a tropical region to create cooler interior spaces. In hill stations, the solar panels can be provided along with the sloped roof which helps in providing electricity and also acts as the roof to the shelter. On the other hand, in cities, Thermoelectric cement based composites can be used. The science behind the development of this design is the combination of climatology, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and human thermal comfort. Energy efficiency in the buildings can be achieved by analysing the macro and micro climate of the site, applying solar- passive design features and taking advantage of natural resources on site.
Aswin Rajkumaran Jeyakumaran, Jeyakumaran Natarajan, Prithivikumaran Natarajan