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4
3
irrespective of the outdoor climatic conditions. Vernacular 7
residential buildings of Kerala, by virtue of their design and
materials and special methods used for construction,
provides an indoor environment where the air temperature is
maintained within a range that is comfortable for living. But 1
2 4
A S Dili and T Z Varghese are with the Department of Civil
Engineering while M A Naseer is with the Department of
Plan
Architecture, National Institute of Technology, Calicut 673 601.
Legend : 1. entrance; 2. semi open space; 3. courtyard; 4. rooms; 5. kitchen;
This paper was received on July 15, 2009. Written discussion on the 6. dining; and 7. religious rites
paper will be entertained till June 30, 2010. Figure 1 A typical Kerala vernacular residential building
RESULTS
34
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION 33
32
31
The custom made instrumentation set-up called Architectural 30
Evaluation System (AES), is a combination of electronic 29
28
sensors, data logger, memory module and computer interface 27
(Figure 3). This was installed in the building during the 26
25
summer in 2009 to record the data for the investigation. 24
Sensors were fixed at selected locations in the building. 23
The temperature was recorded within the courtyard (at two 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18
Time, h
Figure 4 Graph : Temperature against time
Sensors
35 90
Temperature, oC
34 85
Power supply unit 33
32 80
31
30 75
Memory module 29
28 70
27 65
Data logger 26
25 60
24
23 55
18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18
Computer
Time, h
Figure 3 Architectural evaluation system (AES) Figure 5 Graph : Temperature and RH against time
18 IE(I) Journal–AR
atmosphere, intense solar radiation and heavy rainfall. The In fact, judicious use of appropriate materials and adoption
investigation reveals that, the presence of internal courtyard of suitable traditional techniques in architecture is what is
within the living spaces and optimum window openings required for a sustainable, energy efficient and comfortable
provided for a continuous air movement, highly insulative human life.
building envelop for thermal protection, provision of verandahs
for protection of external walls from solar radiation and the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
pitched roof for protection from heavy rain together contribute
The authors extend sincere gratitude to Mr R Varma of
for a passive environment control system.
Nilamboor Kovilakam for his co-operation in the conduct of
It is evident from the results that the diurnal variation of the the investigation. The authors also extend sincere gratitude
indoor temperature is low irrespective of the outdoor to Dr Ziaudeen, Principal, TKM College of Engineering,
temperature variation and there is no time lag. This is due to Kollam, Kerala for providing necessary help for this research
high thermal capacity of the building envelop and due to the and Mr Sreejith TS, Production Executive of EMCON, Cochin,
continuous air flow maintained through the building. Even Kerala for fabrication of the equipment set-up.
though there is scope for convective heat exchange because
REFERENCES
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2. M S Sozen and G Z Gedik. ‘Evaluation of Traditional Architecture in
Figure 5 shows that during day time when the indoor Terms of Building Physics : Old Diyarbakir Houses’. Building and
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4. D Vyas. ‘Traditional Indian Architecture — the Future Solar Buildings’.
CONCLUSION International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Cooling for the
Built Environment, Santorini, Greece, May 2005.
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methods and techniques adopted in the Kerala vernacular Investigation’. The Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects, 2008,
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