Response of conventional and energy-saving buildings to design and human dependent factors

CELINA FILIPPÍN, SILVANA FLORES LARSEN, BEASCOCHEA ALICIA AND GRACIELA LESINO

SOLAR ENERGY

Elsevier Ltd

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2005 p. 455 - 470

0038-092X

During the year 2000, energy-efficient buildings for low-income students at La Pampa University were designed and constructed. Buildings are  located at the centre of La Pampa province,  in a temperate semi-arid region of central Argentina Socio-economic,  educational and environmental reasons have driven the design.  Energy conservation devices, passive solar heating, natural ventilation and solar protection were the main  strategies. The resulting design comprises two blocks of apartments  with a useful floor area of  700 m2 and main spaces. Two bedrooms,  a dining room and essential services make up each apartment.  Solar windows are provided  for all main spaces. Northern shading devices and metallic pergolas  protect all windows in summer. Once the building was finished, a monitoring plan started on December 2000.  This paper shows the results of the thermal and energy  behaviour  of apartments. The evolution of internal temperature was different in each apartment.  The consumption of natural gas varied among dwellers, but the volume consumed  was lower than that of conventional dwellings. Without extra building cost dwellers live under good higrothermal conditions at 50% of the auxiliary energy consumed  by conventional dwellings.