Evaluation of the thermal resilience of buildings in overheating in present and climate change scenarios

Abstract

Thermal resilience refers to a building’s capacity to adapt to extreme thermal variations, maintaining a healthy environment for its occupants. This study aims to assess the thermal resilience of a naturally ventilated low-income residential building in overheating conditions within a region of savannah tropical climate. Various indices, including adaptive thermal comfort, Indoor Overheating Degree (IOD) and Exceedance Hours (HE), Heat Index (HI), and Standard Effective Temperature (SET) were calculated in current and climate change scenarios using two models, a standard building (HISp) and a building that incorporates passive bioclimatic strategies (HISe). It was demonstrated that thermal insulation and low absorption strategies significantly contribute to indoor environmental quality, reducing the risk of overheating exposure in all evaluated scenarios. Despite reducing discomfort hours and critical thermal stress levels, the idealized strategies do not provide adequate habitability conditions for the occupants. Overheating will become even more severe in projected future scenarios. Among the two dwellings, HISe demonstrates a superior potential to mitigate the risk of overheating compared to HISp in all the scenarios evaluated.