Thermal comfort in residential building stock of Quetta, Pakistan

Household sector in Pakistan consumes more than half of the energy. Quetta is the capital and the largest city of Balochistan province, Pakistan. The city is facing problems due to increasing population, and shortage of energy. The existing houses are not providing optimum thermal comfort to the residents and the residents are using mechanical methods for achieving comfort in their houses which increase the usage and the demand of energy. There is strong need to develop and adopt the climate responsive strategies to achieve thermal comfort by using minimum energy and reducing the environmental impact. The aim of this PhD is to develop climate responsive design strategies for the improvement of indoor thermal comfort of free running houses at Quetta by providing cost effective, low-tech, energy efficient and locally acceptable solutions. A housing survey was conducted to characterize the existing houses in Quetta and identify the common housing types. The most common housing typology i.e. houses with reinforced cement concrete (R.C.C) structure were selected for the further analysis. Indoor climate of 10 houses was monitored and structured interview was conducted to get insights about the thermal comfort level and perception of the residents. It was found that houses mainly face daily 4-8h electricity outage hours both in summer and in winter season. Residents are less satisfied with the cost of energy compared to the consumption. However, they seem relatively more satisfied with the prices of natural gas than electricity. The houses are very warm in summer and cold in winter. The situation leads to more use of mechanical systems to obtain thermal comfort. The monitored climate data shows that indoor temperature is high is summer and low in winter while the humidity level is generally low in both seasons. The increase in temperature decreases the humidity level making indoor environment more uncomfortable.