Abstract—The thermal performance of any house depends on
the climatic conditions surrounded the buildings. The aim of this
study is to investigate the available strategies for building
passive design. This is while making the building comfortable
and efficient. Mahoney tables, bioclimatic chart and Climate
Consultant software were used to analyze the available
strategies in improving the indoor thermal performance of the
building for occupants’ thermal comfort. Kota Kinabalu city
(Malaysia) and Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) are the selected
locations in this study. The results showed that all the methods
agreed that ventilation is the best approach for passive cooling.
Many recommended passive strategies for indoor cooling were
suggested and discussed in this article. Overall, thermal comfort
of the occupants was not achievable all the time. In the humid
tropics heat gain is also not recommended all year round.
Index Terms—Malaysia, tropical humid climate, passive
design, residential buildings.
Harimi Djamila is with the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia
Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, 88400, Malaysia (e-mail:
harimidjamila@gmail.com).
Cite: Harimi Djamila, "Passive Strategies of Naturally Ventilated Residential Houses in the Equatorial Humid Tropics," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 102-106, 2017.
