Given high energy demands of buildings, developing countries need to be sensitive to the critical role of building energy efficiency in the fight against climate change. Especially in tropical countries where the thermal flow is strong and the lack of electricity distribution networks is a sad reality. The consolidation of this energy efficiency requires the preservation of nature through a harmony between the building and its environment on one hand and an effective evaluation of energy performance on the other hand. Faced with these challenges, the bioclimatic concept is one of the best alternatives to weave this harmony between the building and its environment. Furthermore a meaningful energy performance assessment of buildings based on the knowledge of capitalization with the experience feedback processes can be used to structure the different phases of implementation of the buildings. Firstly, this article presents the general concept of bioclimatic buildings with emphasis on thermal notions that influence thermal comfort inside a building. Secondly, the effort focuses on identifying non-qualities and factors of discomfort whose resolution helps to improve the energy and environmental performance of buildings. This approach supported by land surveys to interview the building actors and users to collect data favourable or not favourable to energy-performance. These data are then processed for the generation of graphical representations used by methods developed on the basis of knowledge and strategies of bioclimatic concepts. After the capitalized knowledge from experience feedback processes allows us to offer corrective solutions and share best practices to address the identified performance problems.

» Author: Alexander W. Dowling, Ranjeet Kumar, Victor M. Zavala

» Reference: Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 147

» Publication Date: 20/03/2017

» Source: ScienceDirect - GPP

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