Probabilistic Analysis of Passive Cooling Strategies and Occupant Behaviour

Overheating appears as a recurrent problem in apartments of the real estate
market of Santiago, since their architectural design frequently does not
incorporate passive cooling techniques and some occupants may not be
completely aware of their impact on the thermal comfort. This situation is
encouraged by a Thermal Regulation that allows extensive single glazing
surfaces and that does not propose any criteria for limiting the risk of
overheating during summer. To deal with this entire scenario, we proposed the
application of passive cooling strategies with the aim of obtaining adequate
conditions of summer comfort and avoiding the use of air conditioning in
apartments of the real estate market of Santiago. This thesis establishes the
definition of apartment typologies through a multidimensional approach, a
sensitivity analysis with the aim of assessing the possibilities to reduce the
risk of overheating and two questionnaire surveys related to occupant
behaviour and to the interest and willingness to purchase solar protection
devices.

The results obtained suggest that the best performance in terms of summer
comfort can be obtained from the combination of diverse variables that would
be significant in respect to the reduction of the risk of overheating. In this
sense, the presence of solar protection devices and night ventilation
constitute very significant input parameters, especially with respect to
living rooms and bedrooms, respectively. Finally, the approach proposed for
this thesis not only allows introducing improvements in terms of summer
thermal conditions, but also suggests the integration of a series of
attributes, such as the incorporation of solar protection devices as part of
the architectural design, with the aim of being developed at the level of
their value chain.