Passive cooling for thermal comfort in informal housing
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Date
2020Author
Kimemia, David
Annegarn, Harold
Van Niekerk, Ashley
Seedat, Mohamed
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Energy-poor households in Africa’s burgeoning urban informal settlements are especially likely to suffer from
heatwaves because of thermally inefficient dwellings and lack of affordable cooling options. This study utilised
a controlled experiment to assess the effectiveness of passive cooling through specially formulated paints (cool
coatings) in standard informal structures. The test structures were built to simulate typical shack dwellings in
South Africa’s urban informal settlements. Results showed that the mean daily maximum temperatures of the
coated structure were up to 4.3 °C lower than those in the uncoated structure. The same cooling trend was
observed for the minimum daily temperatures, which were lower by an average of 2.2 °C. Besides, the annual
frequency of maximum temperature exceedances beyond the critical heat stroke value of 40 °C dropped from
19% for the uncoated structure to 1% for the coated structure. These temperature differences were found to
be statistically and subjectively significant, implying that cool coatings may be effective in promoting thermal
comfort and climate resilience in poor urban communities. It is recommended that governmental authorities
and relevant role players invest in the production and assisted application of cool coatings in urban informal
settlements. The interventions promise hope of reduced energy burden on poor households and could be implemented in parallel with ongoing efforts focused on the design and implementation of low-cost, durable and
thermally comfortable houses for indigent communities. Ultimately, the endeavours could be a potential policy
change to assist in expanding poor households’ access to alternative and green energy resources
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/34898https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/jesa/article/view/7689/9809
https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3051/2020/v31i1a7689